The Best Days of Their Lives
by BlackRose89
Summary: There's a fine line between incredibly funny, incredibly mean, incredibly smart, incredibly insane, incredibly confident and incredibly arrogant. The Marauder's Tale. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE! EVEN FLAMES ARE APPRECIATED!
1. CHAPTER 1INTRODUCING: THE MARAUDER'S

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING: THE MARAUDER'S  
  
The Marauder's were the most respected guys in Hogwarts, and they always had been. Girls hero-worshipped the ground they walked on, and guys wanted to be them. James Potter had a sort of grungy cool aura about him, with messy, jet-black hair and hazel eyes. He was a pretty big player, dating many girls at a time. In fact, the only bigger playboy then James Potter was Sirius Black, Potter's longtime best friend and sidekick. Sirius was hotter then hot (according to the resident girl population) and, in the end, was really only trying to get as many girls into his bed as possible. Almost the opposite of his two best friends, Remus Lupin, the caring, sensitive one who was often the brain's behind the group's most extensive pranks and late night excursions. He had more girls crying on his shoulder and spilling their soul to him then James did girlfriends. Last, was Peter Pettigrew, who was small and rather squat, and was considered by some, one of the bigger gits to roam the hallowed halls of Hogwarts. No one really knew why he was friends with the Marauder's, and no one could really figure out exactly why he was popular. Quite frankly, no really cared enough to think about it either. They were the smartest of the smartest (and the smartest of the smart asses) and spent just as much time in lessons as they did in detention. As of current they were all in the noble house of Gryffindor, and on year five in their magical education. 


	2. CCHAPTER 2: INTRODUCING THE GIRLIES

The equivalent of the Marauder's in girls were the fifth year Ravenclaw "girlies." Pretty, sassy, confident, flirtatious, and incredibly smart, they all came from different sections of the world to study at the esteemed Hogwarts. The ringleader, Caitie Roark, was originally from America. Most gagged at her seemingly horrific accent, but most guys didn't even hear her when she spoke, (which was a shame because she could be extraordinarily bright and intellectual when she wanted to be,) but this was because she was considered drop-dead gorgeous. At 5'5, she had wavy, dark brown hair that fell just below her shoulders and bright blue eyes/ Her best feature, though, was her smile. It was huge and showed a lot of perfectly straight, bright-white teeth. Because she flashed it so much, her closest friends had dubbed her Smiley. Her best friend, Cailie Dep, was French, and the most sophisticated girl in the whole school. She could be stuck up and tended to sneer down at people at times, but one could forgive her because of her tall, lean, dancer body and her pale skin with doe eyes. She had long brown hair that was almost always up in a bun, and she had a thick, French accent that no one could really understand accept her friends and the teachers. Once you could understand her, though, you realized she had a dark, sarcastic humor that was constantly treading the borderline and funny and extremely mean. Jessi Langane was from Italy. At 4'11, she carried toughness that no one twice her size could equal, and boy, could she pack a punch. She was a blonde bombshell with a happy, bubbly attitude for the most part, but when you got her angry, you best run in the other direction. Finally, there was Ashley Kolinsky, who was from Poland, although her father was actually Native American at one point. Tan with jet-black curly hair, Ashley had a megaphone voice that she wasn't afraid to use, and often didn't think before she opened her mouth. She intimidated quite a few people, and had a flaring temper that couldn't be kept under wraps for anything, but once you got to know her, she really was a good friend.  
The four vivacious, spunky fifth years had been friends with the Marauder's for quite some time, although there game was really playing hard to get. As they all re-united for there fifth year, they all wondered what surprises it would bring, as well as continuing to reminisce on past events. 


	3. CHAPTER 3: ABOARD THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS

CHAPTER 3-ABOARD THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS  
  
A/N I know the last two chapters were really short, (they were actually supposed to be together as one) but I was having problems uploading it so I had to upload it separately. I promise the next one's will be longer, though. Oh yeah and: I own none of the stuff related to Harry Potter. I own all of the Girlies. The rest of it all belongs to the wonderful J.K Rowling (This goes for Chapters 1 and 2 as well)  
James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew all were standing on Platform 9 ¾, carting trunks full of things needed to get through there fifth year at Hogwarts. Having just come from Diagon Alley together, they had already caught up on each other's summers' and were currently all lost in there own thoughts. Sirius was impatiently waiting for the train, he was famished and already bored of flirting with a pair of giggly, red-faced first years, who were apparently attempting to ask him out on a dare. Peter was sitting on top of his trunk, occasionally starting to nod off in the afternoon sun, and James was staring at a certain red- haired, green-eyed girl.  
'God, how does it seem that she can become more and more beautiful by the second?' he asked himself as he watched her hair bounce to the rhythm of her enthusiastic talking.  
"Hey, Potter, snap out of it or I'm going to die of boredom here," said Sirius waving his hand anxiously in front of James' face. He was quite disappointed at being dragged out of his daydreaming, but not missing a beat, he said,  
"Well, Padfoot, old friend, I do believe that should you die of boredom I'm afraid there will be to many crying girls at your funeral, and they tend to be rather ugly when they're crying, so I really do suggest you get yourself un-bored." Remus, who had stopped reading to see what they were talking about, rolled his eyes and said jokingly,  
"Please, Prongs, don't start inflating his ego, you have a big enough one already, I don't need two of you." Sirius laughed and James slugged him playfully.  
The gang had lapsed into a silence when all of the sudden, out of nowhere, came a charging blonde blur, who proceeded to knock Lupin over onto the pavement and wrap him into a huge, unable-to-breathe hug, and a loud, screeching voice that proclaimed,  
"Jesus Christ, Jessi, you're going to kill poor Remmie."  
Sirius and James turned to Remus, eyebrows arched, and practically busting out with laughter, obviously thinking, 'Remmie?'  
The three other girls made there way over to the Marauder's, obviously taking their sweet time, never missing an opportunity to flip there hair or flash a smile at somebody. They finally reached them and they gave each other hugs, Sirius grabbing each girl's ass as they hugged him, and each girl slapping him painfully, although not dropping there smiles. They barely had time to speak and what the girls did say came out in a jumbled, fast slur of jibber-jabber that was not understandable in the least, especially with all the different accents. The boys smiled and nodded occasionally, not even attempting to sort out the sentences. Soon, James caught site of the Hogwarts express and the boys' ushered the girls onto the train and into a compartment, still smiling and nodding at the gibberish that poured out of their mouths.  
After shoving their trunks into the overhead compartments and under their seats they sat down in various seats next to and across from each other, they began chatting again, (a little more slowly this time, to the boys' relief.)  
"So, Smiley, how's your summer been?" Remus asked. Catie began to trail off on a long-winded explanation about her trip back to New York to see her relatives when James suddenly cut her off,  
"As interesting as that all sounds, Smiley," Catie began to pout about being cut off, "I bet we're all simply dying to know what our dearest Remmie has been up to!" He mimicked in Ashley's high-pitched voice. Lupin glared at James, Sirius began laughing hysterically, Caitie, Jessi, and Cailie began to smirk, and Ashley slapped James' arm. The conversations continued on like this for quite some time until a greasy- haired fifth year and a blonde-haired sixth year walked in on them. "Oh great, it's that slime ball again," muttered Jessi under her breath 'How many times have I told you, Jess, his name's Snivellus," said James, not bothering to keep his voice low. Sirius turned to him and spat, "What the hell do you want?" Snape and Malfoy glared at the group, "I can see we're not wanted here, Luscious, so I believe we'll be heading to another compartment," Snape said in a wickedly evil, oily voice. "I'll be damned if that's all your greasy arse sidled on in here for" Ashley said, her hands flying out.  
"No, your right, it's not," Said Malfoy smoothly, "I was just trying to get a piece of this fine ass right here," he then slapped Jessi on the behind, causing an uproar throughout the compartment. Remus, Sirius, James, Catie, Cailie, and Ashley all stood up and had there wands out, but Jessi proved to be quite capable of handling it on her own and with a loud THWARP she slapped him across the face with as much strength as she could possibly muster and they began to stagger out.  
"Feisty little one, aren't you?" Asked Malfoy maliciously.  
"Don't you dare touch Jessi!" Shouted Lupin  
"It seems to me you've got yourself another tag-along worshipper haven't you Jessi?" asked Snape, glaring at Lupin. Jessi had had enough and with one final resounding thump she had pushed them both into another compartment and slammed the door on their faces.  
The rest of the journey came and went without a hitch and within no time they were at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
"Great, we're here, 'cause I'm starving!" Shouted Sirius. James jumped up and began to stretch, yawning widely as the rest rolled their eyes appreciatively and began getting their stuff. 


	4. CHAPTER 4: BOTTOMLESS PITS AND AN OPENIN...

CHAPTER 4: THE BOTTEMLESS PITS AND AN OPENING FEAST  
  
A/N: Obviously I don't own any of these; otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here writing this. Anything from the Harry Potter series that I have borrowed comes from J.K Rowling belongs to J.K Rowling, (obviously) so don't sue! Anyway, here's chapter 4( Hope you like it!  
  
*~~~*  
  
After a considerable amount of heaving, rearranging, grabbing, and a certain amount of dropping and crashing noises, they group had all managed to grab there stuff and make there way to the outside of the train. Dragging there stuff along behind them they all paused a moment to look at the school that they would call home for a year. They were all thinking about how beautiful and grand it was when a loud voice interrupted them,  
"Firs' years, c'mon now, firs' years, this way!" Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper, shouted.  
"Hey, Hagrid!" shouted James, jumping over the heads in the crowd and giving him a quick wave before being carried away with the sea of students. Hagrid smiled, and then went back to his duties.  
The group split into two in order to fit in the carriages, plus the fact that they were in danger of being separated between masses of people anyway. James, Sirius, Caitie and Cailie were in one while the rest had piled into the second one.  
"Hey, Smiley, can you see those things? The...uhh.what are they called? Thestrals? Can you see them?" asked Cailie in a French accent that was barely distinguishable, but her friend had gotten used to it over the years and replied nonchalantly,  
"Nope, can't see 'em, and I'd rather not, s'all good here for now." Cailie winced slightly at her fall into a New York sort of slang but just nodded,  
"Me neither, and like you said, I am glad."  
"God, when are we going to get there? I'm so freaking' hungry!" bellowed Sirius, adjusting himself so he could look out the front of the carriage to see where they were.  
"Calm down, Padfoot, we're both hungry, but there is no need to scare these two lovely ladies with our never-ending food consuming habits," said James smoothly, smiling at the corners of his mouth. Sirius growled in a rather dog-like manner but sat back down just the same and the two girls smiled teasingly.  
They arrived at the entrance hall, Sirius still muttering under his breath, and they entered the building happily. Caitie smiled in awe,  
"There is no place like home," and sighed happily.  
They re-united with the rest of the gang and entered the Great Hall, only to be separated again to go to there separate tables.  
The Sorting Hat had sung it's song and sorted the newcomers into the proper houses, and by the time the food was served, the girls could honestly say that they were also hungry.  
"So, they've all obviously grown hotter over the year, I mean, did you see those washboard abs on Sirius? And those muscles on James! And My God, Remus' sooo toned!" proclaimed Ashley rather loudly, and she attracted a few stares, but by the look on all the girls' faces, she was obviously not wrong. Caitie followed her gaze over to the four, who were stuffing themselves with such an indecency that she had to turn away.  
"My question is, how do keep those figures with all that eating? They're like friggin' bottomless pits!" Jessi nodded at her friend's comment, scrunching up her nose slightly, but Cailie stared at Caitie looking rather bemused,  
"Bottomless pits? What is that supposed to mean?" Realization dawned on the girls' faces and Caitie quickly explained the term to her French friend,  
"It means you can eat however much you want and still continue to look sexy."  
"Ahh.I wish I could be a.bottomless pit," she said and they all laughed.  
Meanwhile, at the Gryffindor table.  
"Hey, Prongs, it looks like the girls are staring at us again, although I can't see how I blame them," Sirius said, nodding towards the Ravenclaw table. James wasn't even paying attention, though, he was staring yearningly toward the other end of the table, where Lily and her friends were sitting, chatting. Sirius looked at where he was looking and just rolled his eyes and turned back to his plate. 


	5. CHAPTER 5BEINVENU A LA MAISON FRANCIAISE...

CHAPTER 5: BIENVU A LA MAISON FRANCIASE DE WHORE  
  
A/N: I don't own anything from the Harry Potter series, nor do I own Quiet Riot OR there song Come On, Feel the Noise. And for that matter, I don't own a French Whore House either. Oh, and thanks to Cailie, whose room I based this off of.  
  
*~~~*  
  
The next morning came all too soon for the Marauder's, none of whom could exactly be dubbed, "morning people." Four alarms went off at the same time and just as quickly there were four, almost exactly the same, groans and the four alarms were shut off. Lupin, not really wanting to give up breakfast, rolled over and practically fell out of the bed, only half awake. He stood up and stretched, yawning widely. Then, realizing that none of the others were making any sort of attempt to get up, he went over to each of their beds and proceeded to knock everyone out of them.  
"Get up, you lazy bums," he shouted.  
"Moony! Shut up and act normal for once!" whined James as he too began to stretch in a completely over-exaggerated way.  
Eventually they all got up, took showers, put their uniforms on, and began to head down toward the Great Hall.  
"This way you dolt," said Sirius, grabbing Peter, who was heading the wrong way, and pushed him in the right direction.  
"Oops," he squeaked and they all rolled their eyes.  
At the same time, the Ravenclaw Girlies were getting ready to come down to breakfast as well.  
"SMILEY! Get out of the damn shower, or WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" screamed Ashley, banging both of her fists on the door, creating quite the racket. At that moment, she heard the water shut off, and she watched, still in mid-scream as Caitie poked her head out, towel on, hair-dryer in hand, smiling full on at Ashley's expression.  
Jessi walked in the room, happily surveying herself in the mirror as she passed it,  
"Hey Smiley, why do you always insist on charming those muggle things and using them?" she asked brightly, wide-awake.  
"'Cause I feel like it," she said shrugging her shoulders, "I dunno, it's just more familiar, I guess." Jessi nodded, not really getting it, and then walked out, muttering that she'd wait for them in the Common Room.  
Caitie changed into her uniform quickly, put some make-up on, made sure her hair was falling in wavy ringlets and not frizzing out to a puffball. When she as sure it wouldn't, she grabbed Ashley, (who was still commenting on how Caitie's slower-then-molasses ways were going to make them late) by the wrist and pulled her down to the common room. There they met up with Cailie and Jessi, linked each other's arms' and, hips swaying, smiles on, winking and flipping their hair, they made there way down to the Great Hall.  
One could always tell when the Marauder's or the Girlies were entering the Great Hall because majority of the members of the opposite sex would stop what they were doing and turn to stare. This was doubly noticeable today as both parties walked in at almost exactly the same time. Most of the Hall fell silent, turned, and looked up and gaped. One would also think that the Marauder's and the Girlie's would get tired of this after awhile, and even find it a little embarrassing or awkward. But, to be quite honest, both groups loved the attention, and practically lived to be treated like royals. Caitie gave a little diva wave and flashed her big, beautiful smile, whereas Ashley curtsied and Jessi winked at a couple of boys. The boys all waved and gave salutes, and then they headed to there separate tables. Soon, the chatter started up again and the volume level was back to normal. ` Both groups looked at there schedules and discovered that they had their last class together.  
*~~~*  
  
The day passed very slowly for both groups. All of them being smart, they all caught on quickly to what the professors were saying and they're "O.W.L talks" were really beginning to annoy them. Finally, their last class of the day, Transfiguration, had came, and when there were only five minutes left in the class, a note came fluttering over to where the Marauder's were sitting.  
  
James, Sirius, Remus & Peter, Please join us at our Common Room after this Transfiguration Lesson snore finally ends. Love ya! Smiley, Jessi, Cailie, & Ashley  
*~~~*  
"Bienvenu a la maison franciase de whore," proclaimed Cailie, speaking in her native tongue. This immediately sent the girls, who were standing in there dorm, into fits of giggles as the boys stood around looking rather stupid.  
Finally, Sirius spoke up, "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" he asked bluntly, which sent the girls into another raging giggles. Finally, Ashley just said,  
"Welcome to the French whore house." The boys looked around, still kind of bewildered, although comprehension had began to dawn on Lupin's face.  
"We did some of our own decorating, to make it look like a.well, a French whore house," said Jessi.  
"Using a little bit of magic, of course," said Caitie, grinning widely. They all laughed. The room was a bold blue color with curly-q's along the edges in gold. The rug was a fluffy blue, and there were lots of mirrors, the bed curtains made of red, sheer, silk. There were also posters on the wall that read things in French, and old French drawings. In the corner there was a small vanity table with a patchwork quilt that the colors came from. On top sat moving pictures of all the girls in pretty, felt frames.  
"Interesting. Very interesting," stated Lupin and they all burst out into laughter again.  
They talked for a while, and Caitie put on some music, on her muggle boom box, that had once again been charmed to work in magical surroundings.  
"Come on, feel the noise! Girls rock the boys!" The music blared from it, and everyone whirled around to look at her. She shrugged,  
"It's a new band, Quiet Riot. They play really cool music; it's called 'Heavy Metal'. They just emerged from the Sunset Strip back in America. They're really famous there now." Everyone looked at her in shock, then turned back around, shrugged their shoulders and went back to talking. 


	6. CHAPTER 6: I SAY HOGGY YOU SAY WARTY

CHAPTER 6: YOU SAY HOGGY, I SAY WARTY  
  
A/N: Nothings changed, nothing belongs to me accept the things that do, laughs but that's only my minor characters  
*~~~*.  
  
The Marauders and the Girlies were flopped along the shoreline of the lake, summer was showing its biggest sign of life since August and it was hotter then hot, so the entire student population was milling about. Sirius was lying on his back, hands behind his back, shirt off and sweating profusely, and it was attracting quite the amount of girl's gaping. Remus was sitting under the shade of the tree, a muscle tank top on and a pair of low-cut shorts that showed off his boxers. Peter, (who wasn't attracting very much attention) sat in cut-off jeans and a t-shirt. The Girlies were all spread out in a little circle on their stomachs. They were attracting quite a big amount of attention from guys, mostly because of their matching, cute little American outfits that Caitie had bought them all over summer vacation. They all had on a different colored tube-top that barely reached to their bellybuttons (Caitie had a diamond stud in hers) and either white or tan cargo tiny, tiny shorts. They were talking lazily, occasionally splashing each other with water, and the boys especially liked this.  
All of the sudden James caught the eye of a fiery red-headed girl, who was chatting animatedly with a brown-haired girl who wore glasses and a tall, thin blonde girl who would be considered pretty if she did not have warts on her fingers, toes and chin. James jumped up and brushed himself off, pushed his fingers through his already sexily messed-up hair and walked, or rather, sauntered grandly so that the whole of Hogwarts was watching him.  
"Hey! Evans!" he shouted in what he considered his most sexy voice. Lily turned around half-heartedly, a glare already creeping onto her face. The two girls turned around and stood behind her, as if to provide moral and physical support.  
"What the hell do you want, James?" she asked disdainfully, and his grin faltered a little, but it came back nonetheless.  
"What do I always want, my lovely Lily flower?" Lily's hands balled into fists and the brown haired girl was practically shooting daggers at him through her glasses, "I want you to go out with me, love and cherish me, and live happily ever after together, Evans."  
Lily almost looked as if she was going to break into a grin, but caught herself and just glared at him even more.  
"So I'll take that as a yes, then," He said happily, walking over to her and putting his arm around her waist.  
By this point practically the whole grounds had stopped what they were doing and were staring avidly at the odd scene taking place before them, and Sirius had walked over to James' side. Lily did not mean yes, though, and promptly pushed him away from her in disgust.  
"I'd die before going out with you, you arrogant little asshole!" James looked temporarily speechless. He had never been turned down by a girl before though, well, yes he had, Lily turned him down nearly every day, but not in front of the whole Hogwarts student body before. Pride hurt, he tried another, much less daft route.  
"I don't think that's true, Evans. I mean, you might not want to admit it, but I know you had an amazing time in my bed last night, you wild, sexy beast!" He shouted so that everyone could hear, not that he needed to, it was like everyone was holding there breath to see what happened next.  
"POTTER! YOU ARE SUCH A FUCKING ASSHOLE AND I SWEAR IF I NEVER TALK TO YOU, SEE YOU, OR HEAR YOU AGAIN I'LL BE SO GOD DAMNED HAPPY. YOU ARE ARROGANT AND A COMPLETE JERK AND SOMEONE NEEDS TO CRACK YOU HEAD OPEN AND KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO IT, AND I'LL GLADLY BE THE ONE YOU ARE NOTHING SHORT OF A HOG!!" she seethed and raged at him, breathing hard and face a brilliant shade of red. James went slack-jawed and said nothing, but Sirius made one of his brilliant recoveries for him  
"Well now we got the 'Hog' part, so all we need is the 'warts' and I do believe that'll be your friend right there," he said pointing to the blonde. Both Lily and James stamped away, James towards the Whomping Willow and Lily towards the castle, leaving a tear-streaked blonde, and the brown- haired girl, who Sirius remembered as being Becca.Becca something, he couldn't really remember that much. She looked so livid she couldn't even open her mouth. But she didn't have to. All she had to do was pick up her fist and give him a really hard punch in the jaw and a good kick in the balls and stomp away, leaving Sirius on the ground and moaning in pain. Everyone got her point.  
*~~~*  
  
"Well, now, that was an interesting scene," said Jessi to Remus later that day. It had gotten a little bit chilly, as evening was beginning to approach, so most had gone back inside. The only two who remained on the grounds were Jessi and Remus, talking quietly.  
"Yes it was, although if you ask me, they were both kind of being prats," he said, hesitating, not really sure how she was going to react. Jessi seemed to be the least stuck-up out of the group of Girlies, but he hadn't really talked to her one-on-one in awhile, so he couldn't really be sure.  
"Definitely. James totally disrespected Lily, and even though I don't like her, no woman or girl should be disrespected in that way. And Sirius shouldn't have said that at all, or he should've at least waited 'till she wasn't around.  
"Yeah, well, they're kind of 'in-the-moment' guys, they don't really think before they speak.or act for that matter," he trailed off, deep in thought. Jessi nodded and rolled over on her back.  
"Hey, look, the sun's setting, it's always so pretty." She patted the ground next to her, "Here, sit right here so you can see it properly." He moved over mutely and they sat and watched as the sun set.  
For a few minutes after they just sat in complete awe, until Jessi broke the silence, and said rather timidly,  
"It's so beautiful that it brings tears to my eyes sometimes. It makes me feel really small, and insignificant. I'm just a little dot compared to that great big sun, that has so much power and so much beauty, but it can destroy so many things and people. It has the ability to make people warm, it has the ability to burn them. It's so complicated," she finished, looking at Remus, hoping he wouldn't think her a complete nutter.  
"Yes, it is," he said and she smiled, relieved, "It's almost scary to think about. But people can be like that too. So strong and so beautiful, yet they can destroy themselves or other people so easily. It's a beautiful tragedy." They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, completely wrapped in there own thought, until Lupin realized Jessi was shivering.  
"C'mon, let's go in," he said, and put his arm around her shoulders and they walked inside. 


	7. CHAPTER 7:A LITTLE GAME CALLED TRUTH OR ...

CHAPTER 7: A LITTLE GAME CALLED TRUTH OR DARE  
  
A/N: As usual, Harry Potter, the Marauder's and everything that comes with them are J.K Rowling's, not mine. I own some of the minor characters and most of the plot. And on with the story. R&R please! I'd greatly appreciate it!!!  
  
` Although Sirius had insisted he was fine, when he woke up to a glorious Sunday morning, everyone, even he knew he was not. His whole jaw- line was puffed up and swollen, and his chin was covered in black and blues, as well as some that were tinged green. He could barely move it, let alone speak or eat. Remus, seeing his friend's plight, forced him to the Hospital Wing. The whole story soon came out, and it turned out that Sirius had a broken jaw. Madam Promfrey mended it in a matter of a minute, and although she wanted him to stay a bit longer, he insisted he was fine.  
"C'mon Poppy, you know I have to get on with pranking my fellow Hogwarts student's," he said, a lopsided grin on his face. Madam Promfrey just rolled her eyes and smiles, and Sirius bolted out of the Hospital Wing.  
  
*~~~*  
Becca looked around nervously, she had never been in Professor Dumbledore's office before. Quite frankly, she couldn't remember ever getting in trouble before, either. She knew it had a lot to do with punching that jackass, Sirius Black, but she couldn't really help herself. The attack had definitely did not come unprovoked. She was still extremely pissed off that he would say such a thing about her best friend, especially right to her face! Becca smiled in an almost wicked way thinking about how pale Sirius had looked when he went to the hospital wing, and how she had successfully broken his jaw. Becca was not a violent person, but on the whole, she definitely thought he deserved it. In fact, she never realized why anyone had never attempted to do this before.  
Professor Dumbledore walked in with Sirius, and Becca's eyes got wide. 'Oh, God' she thought, "This is great, just great'  
"Well, Miss Watson, Mr. Black, please explain yourselves," he said sternly, although Becca could've sworn he almost smiled at her. She explained to the Professor exactly what had transpired on the grounds yesterday, and then waited with baited breath.  
"Is this true, Mr. Black?" He asked evenly, giving nothing away.  
"Yes, sir," he mumbled.  
"Well, then. You will both serve a detention tomorrow night with Professor McGonagall, together. I believe she needs some good old muggle cleaning done, as there was a messy accident today with some over-exuberant first years," He said, eyes twinkling. They exited, wide eyed and completely annoyed that they had to do a detention together.  
"Asshole," Becca said just before going up to the girl's dorm.  
"Bitch" he replied, and then disappeared up the other staircase.  
  
*~~~*  
  
After lunch, but before dinner, The Girlies and The Marauder's sat in the Ravenclaw fifth year dorm, discussing Sirius's punishment.  
"I can't believe he's making you clean McGonnagall's room with that witch! After what she did to you! It could be dangerous!" Shouted James, throwing his hands up in the air.  
"You think I can't keep that bitch under control?" Growled Sirius.  
"Um, no I don't Padfoot, especially since no guy who has any decency will ever hit a girl, correct?" He asked.  
"Like you guys ever had any real decency," said Cailie laughing. Sirius glared at her.  
"Oh, and like you Girlies do?" He shot back, obviously offended.  
"Hey!" Said Caitie, smiling grandly, "How 'bout we play a nice, innocent game of Truth Or Dare?" She asked, obviously trying to get their minds off the most recent spat. Both parties took the bait, hook, line and sinker.  
"Truth or Dare in the French Whore House, got to love that!" said James, licking his lips and rubbing his hands together.  
"I'll start," said Jessi, a coy smile playing on her lips, "Hey Ash, truth or dare?"  
"Dare!" said Ashley, never one to shy away from any sort of competition.  
"We all know Sirius has been a bit down today, so how about you cheer him up a bit?" She said, now smiling fully, a daring twinkle in her eye.  
"I flat out refuse to see what's below Sirius's belt-buckle, too many girl's have been there before" she said matter-of-factly, folding her arms over her chest. Sirius went slightly red as everyone burst out laughing.  
"Well then, give him a little kiss at least, you chose dare." Ashley looked fully disgusted by this, but then she began to smile rather sinisterly. She got up and dragged Sirius up by the shoulders, no easy task, considering he was the strongest out of the four, and pushed him up against a wall. She gave him a wildly flirtatious smile and pushed her lips into his. Passion exploded and what started out as a soft, friendly kiss, quickly became a full-frontal, fireworks exploding, harsh kiss, each pushing there tongues hungrily into the others mouth. After about thirty seconds the sight of this had become too much for many of the group to handle, and when Sirius's hands began to wander down Ashley's shirt, James went green and shouted, "Ok, you two can stop your crazy snogging-fest now and join the land of the living!" Panting and flushed, they both sat down, looking rather awkward. "Where'd you learn to kiss like that?" Sirius asked Ashley hoarsely, still breathing very heavy. Ashley rolled her eyes and smiled at him, "I spent the majority of my teenage years with you dolts." "Oh," he said smiling stupidly. Detention long forgotten, Sirius barely paid attention to the rest of the game his mind on the girl who had sent him into a wild, pleasure-filled tizzy. 'How could I have only thought of her as a friend before? She's so hot. And she's an amazing kisser! Bet she's really good in bed!' He thought, smiling to himself. Little did Ashley know it, but she was soon becoming Sirius' new sex- interest of the week. 


	8. CHAPTER 8: ALL'S FAIR IN WAR AND WAR

CHAPTER 8: ALL'S FAIR IN WAR AND WAR  
  
A/N: As usual, I own nothing.  
  
*~~~*  
  
'It's Monday. I actually have to get up. I have classes. Oh God, and I have detention with that idiot excuse of a guy, Sirius. I, Becca Leigh Watson, have a detention. Tonight. Because I broke some guy's jaw. No, not just some guy's. The most popular guy in school, the biggest jerk off in school. I broke Sirius Black's jaw.'  
And with that thought, Becca rolled out of her bed and walked into the bathroom, dragging most of her bedclothes with her, to get into the shower and begin her less-then-adequate excuse for a day.  
  
*~~~*  
It was almost 7:30 AM, Sirius' first class was at 8, and he was still asleep. James and Peter had already gone down to the Great Hall to get some breakfast, and Remus Lupin was slicking some gel through his sandy-blonde hair so that it wasn't completely in his face, when he noticed that Sirius hadn't even moved since last night.  
"OY! Sirius, mate, get up!" said Lupin, leaning in close to his ear and yelling into it. Sirius just grunted and swatted at his ear, as if attempting to kill a fly.  
"I SAID SIRIUS GET UP!" Sirius didn't even budge. Lupin sighed, shook his head, and gave him a huge WHACK across the head.  
"I'mnotgettin..detentionwith.. Git" He muttered before finally brining himself to his feet and walking down towards the Common Room.  
"SIRIUS!" Lupin shouted, looking at Sirius with an extremely amused expression on his face.  
"WHAT NOW, YOU BLASTED FOOL?" Remus couldn't help himself anymore, and was laughing hysterically.  
"You might want to.put some." he squeezed out, rolling with laughter, "pants.on." Sirius looked down to see his oldest, most frayed pair of boxers, which were practically falling off him, exposing some of his, well, more private parts.  
*~~~*  
  
Cailie stood in the middle of the hallways in between her first and second class, looking down in disgust at Peter as if he were a rather foul- smelling sock.  
"I cannot believe you embarrassed me in such. A way. You fool!" Peter looked down at his shoes and Cailie began to go off on a tirade in French, looking purely maniacal and devious. There was a shrill, squeaking voice, a hundred time magnified, still echoing throughout the corridor. It was screaming,  
"I know you think me only a fool, but I love you forever, my precious erm.tool? I want you to go on a date with me. Will you be my everything?" The culprit was a card that lay on the ground, utterly forgotten. It was rather obvious what had taken place a mere three minutes ago.  
"Vous aer un git laid et stupide, Peter. Vous êtes gros et laid et vous embaressed ME! ME! La seconde fille le plus populaire dans l'école, et vous choisissez de m'humilier devant les générations de plus jeunes enfants qui me regarderont maintenant comme si je suis la TERRE! Vous devez avoir honte." She raged.  
"Awe, baby, I love it when you speak to me in French, it's so sexy!" Cailie, if possible, just became even more enraged at this, and turned to stomp away. As an afterthought, she spun around and gave him a really hard bitch slap before continuing on her way; nose up in the air, composed ad dignified, as if nothing had even occurred.  
*~~~*  
  
Sirius and Becca both trooped down to the Transfiguration room in a silence that was filled with tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.  
"After you, m'lady," said Sirius darkly, opening the door for her and allowing her to walk in. Becca rolled her eyes.  
They walked into a dark and empty Transfiguration room. A note was attached to the inside of the door.  
  
Mr. Black and Miss Watson, You will find all your muggle cleaning supplies in the cabinet to the left. You are to spend as much time as is necessary to make sure this room is sparkling like the Great Hall on the first day of school. Do I make myself clear? I WILL KNOW IF YOU DID NOT USE THE MUGGLE SUPPLIES OR NOT SERVE YOUR DETENTION.  
Cheerio!  
Professor McGonagall  
  
"Lovely old bat, isn't she?" asked Sirius as he sighed and got out the stuff.  
"Better then you'll ever be," stated Becca simply, bending down on her knees and beginning to scrub the dirt and grime off the floor.  
"I'm just going to let that comment pass for right now, as I don't fancy another broken body part," Sirius said evenly, and Becca smirked.  
They worked in silence as they minutes and hours ticked by slowly. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of scrubbing and the occasional slop of water. It was getting late, and Becca was getting very tired. She knew they were almost done, but she was stuck on this one piece of crusted over, something, and she didn't fancy thinking about what it was. She began to mutter, getting annoyed, because it was the only thing that was between her and her nice warm, cozy bed, and it wouldn't come off for anything.  
"I swear, if it wasn't for your stupid fat-head Sirius, neither of us would be here right now."  
"Oh, so you don't enjoy my company, then?" He asked, smirking, knowing fully well it was causing her to just about blow up.  
He was right.  
"You stupid ASSHOLE. I can't BELIEVE you just said THAT. After I broke your freaking jaw the other day. You know what Sirius? One day you're going to end up knocking up some poor, innocent girl, and you're going to end up in some slum, a broken man, because you have to much PRIDE and you are to DAMN IGNORANT. You and your little PRETTY FREAKIN PLAYGIRLS who think they OWN THE WORLD AND EVERY HUMAN BEING THAT WALKS ON IT And you know what? You can't go through life walking all over other people, and insulting those who aren't as fortunate as you. And I will DEFINTIELY NOT ALLOW YOU to BLATATNTLY INSULT MY FRIENDS!"  
Sirius looked as if he was about ready to strangle her. He walked close enough to her to so that she could feel his hot and heavy breath on her skin. He cornered her against the wall, and Becca began to become frightened, she didn't know what this whacko was capable of. But when he spoke he sounded quite calm.  
"You know, Becca, for all your little speech making and lecturing, you seem to be missing a few important parts. I may be an asshole, and God knows, I really don't care what you or any one of your little friends's thought me to be. But I am old enough to take care of myself, and know what to do and what not to do. Sure, I can cross the line, but that's the point in being young. I'm allowed to make mistakes. Because it's people like you that made the saying 'the youth is wasted on the young' come into play. And another thing, maybe I should get to know your friend before judging her. But I honestly don't feel like it, and I can readily admit that that's the wrong thing to do, I just don't care. You, on the other hand, are being quite the little hypocrite, and this is because I don't see you wasting any of your precious time trying to get to know me, OR my "playgirls", who by the way, happen to be a really great group of girls. So before you decide to rampage me with your idiot goody-two-shoes speeches, make sure you practice what you preach, Watson."  
And with that, he walked off, looking though rally pleased with himself, and leaving Becca alone in her own confused thoughts. Finally, she walked off towards the common room, all the while only thinking,  
'What the hell have I gotten myself into now?' 


	9. CHAPTER 9: THE REALITIES OF A NIGHTMARE

A/N: Hullo, mates. This still isn't mine. I don't think it ever was. But at least I had an idea.and idea that sparked..something. I don't know leave me alone, it's late.  
  
CHAPTER 9: THE REALITIES OF A NIGHTMARE  
  
*~~~*  
  
Almost a week had past, and as the gang made it through yet another day, they could sigh in relief, as tomorrow was Friday, and Sunday was a planned Hogsmeade day. Every day James would ask,  
"Evans would you like to go out with me?" and every day: Lily would reply,  
"No Potter, I do not have one fiber in my being that wishes to go out with you."  
Cailie continued ignoring Peter, although he followed her around begging for forgiveness, and even bought her a dozen roses. She had thrown them promptly into the lake, nose in the air. Life continued on as normal. And so that world turned.  
~~~Dream~~~  
  
A small child was running, she was maybe five, six years old at the most. She had curly, dark brown hair and piercingly blue eyes. Her face was tear-streaked and she looked completely terrified. A deep, slurred voice rang out and the little girl heard stumbling footsteps down the hall. She ran into the closet and pushed the lock in, apparently trying to be as quiet as possible, but being a young child, she was not having much success.  
"Caitie, c'mere, now," growled a drunken voice; "I want you to see your mother, in all of her damn glory. A wench and a bitch, she deserves every beating she gets. Don't be afraid, I just want you to see what happens to you when you don't live up to your wedding vows and RESPECT and HONOR you lawful wedded husband." The girl froze and tried to back farther into the corner, only knocking over an old, dusty bin.  
"You little brat!" the man screamed, pounding on the closet door, "Did you not hear me? Do you know what the word respect even means? Come out here! I said COME OUT HERE NOW AND SHOW YOUR DAMNED FACE!" The closet door was suddenly ripped off the hinges and it came colliding down, missing the girl's head by an inch or two. The girl cowered in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest, but was ripped by the wrist by the man, with dark, wavy brown hair that stuck to his pasty pale face, which was sweating profusely, and mad icy-blue eyes that were constantly bugling out of there sockets. He half dragged his daughter down the hall by the arm, muttering insanely. The girl cried out,  
"Daddy! Please don't hurt me!"  
*~~~*  
  
Caitie woke with a start and sat straight up in bed, drenched in cold sweat, shivering, and breathing very short, quick breathes. Her head was spinning and she felt like she was drowning in her own mind.  
'Air,' She thought, 'I need air.' And with hat, she clambered out of bed, down through the common room, and down the hallway, face turning purple as a result of the lack of air getting to her lungs.  
*~~~*  
Remus Lupin was walking down the hallway anxiously, back from the Shrieking Shack, as tonight had been a full moon. But dawn had broken and it was time to get in at least a few hours of rest before starting the day. He was still not feeling a hundred percent, he knew it was the best he'd feel for right now, I mean, he had just spent most of his night as a werewolf; not pleasant, not pleasant at all. He was just about to go up the stairs leading to Gryffindor Tower when he noticed a girl racing down the corridor, panting and wailing madly.  
"Smiley?" He asked tentatively, not sure he had seen anything but a smile on the young woman's face before. To his utter surprise and dismay, she began screaming and shouting at him at the top of her lungs,  
"NO! GO AWAY! Don't you DARE come near me, you bastard! You may have mom under you little spell, but not me anymore, oh no. You can't hurt me anymore! Please! I hate you!" Remus looked at her in complete shock. With one last gasp for air, she collapsed to the ground and began to weep and shake uncontrollably.  
"Ok, it's ok, everything going to be alright. Come on now, I'm not going to hurt you, it's ok," said Lupin soothingly. He was still completely lost, and a little bit dazed by all this, but he also knew it wouldn't look to good if someone were to walk by and witness him standing over a hysterical girl, who was in what could barely be considered a nightgown, and was screeching at him to stop hurting her and go away.  
He picked her up in his arms like a small baby, and although his muscles flexed, he showed no sign of a strain under the weight he was carrying. Although tears were still running silently down her face, besides the occasional hiccup, she made no sounds or motions. He carried her up the stairs, and with each step he took, her breath seemed to be coming in slower, and much more deep. By the time he had carried her into the Common Room, she was resting her head on the crook of his neck and her eyes had closed.  
He placed her on the crimson couch, and then, not knowing what else to do, sank himself into the matching armchair, watching the flames flicker across her now peacefully innocent face. For some reason, he was forcefully reminded of the sun at that moment.  
  
*~~~*  
  
"Where's Smiley?" Asked Jessi the next morning while they while they were all getting ready to go down to breakfast.  
"Probably still in her bed, the lazy ass," sighed Ashley, taking it upon herself to go check up on her. She came back a few seconds later, a goofy sort of lopsided grin plastered on her face that reminded the rest of the group horrifically of Sirius. "She's not here."  
"Ooh, I wonder who's bed she was in last night," Cailie said laughing, her words barely distinguishable. Ashley rolled her eyes and said,  
"What a shmuck!" Cailie and Jessi both began to ask exactly what a shmuck was, but Ashley had already disappeared and moved on to the next important piece of information.  
*~~~*  
"Ok, fess up Pettigrew, which one of your little man-whore friends lured Smiley into their not-so-pure beds last night?" Asked Cailie accusingly, her French accent putting a horrible air of bitchiness to the tone. Peter just gaped at her, amazed at her beauty and the fact that she was even talking to him. After a few seconds Cailie rolled her eyes, turned on her heels and walked away, quite aggravated by the whole situation. Her friends were supposed to play hard to get, be incredible teases, that was what beauties like them were put on earth for, not to go roll in the sack with there womanizing best friends. She thought about all of this as she haughtily stomped away, flipping her hair around and shooting daggers at anyone who dare look at her to make sure her presence and mood be let known.  
*~~~*  
  
Caitie opened her bright blue eyes and discovered she was staring into a pair of chocolate brown ones.  
"Morning' Sunshine, have a nice sleep?" He asked cheerfully, going back to sit in the chair. All of the sudden the flood of events from last night all came back to her. She looked at Lupin and her eyes flooded with tears,  
"Oh my God! Remmie I'm so sorry!" She squealed putting her heads in her hands. Lupin, who had been expecting something like this, just smiled and said,  
"Come here." Caitie sniffled and shuffled over to the armchair and sat sideways on his lap, so that her head was resting on his chest and her legs dangled over the side of the chair. He put his arms around her and rested his chin on her head.  
The sat they're like that for quite awhile, maybe even a few hours, not speaking, not moving.  
Finally, Caitie took a shaky breath,  
"My father was -is- a horrible man. He thought he deserved the utmost amount of respect and attention, but he rarely gave much respect or attention to others, and gave none to my mom and I. He used to beat her for the most moronic things, like if she was talking to another man, even if she was just giving him directions, or if she wore her hair down in public. He didn't hurt me so much, but he threatened, and for a child, that can be worse." She paused to take a breath and Remus squeezed her hand, tears filling in his own eyes.  
"He's in rehab now, 'cause he's a raging alcoholic. But it still frightens me sometimes. He instated so much fear into our lives, I guess it's kinda silly, as I'm in a whole different country now," she trailed off. Lupin put his hands through his sandy blonde hair to collect his thoughts, wiped some tears from the girl's cheek, and said solemnly,  
"Not at all Smiley, it's not silly, not silly at all. You're ok now, I've got you here with me." He grave her a kiss on her forehead and then smiled, "Just don't call me Remmie in front of my friends, okay?" Caitie smiled and laughed weakly.  
'The sun, so powerful and so beautiful, yet it can utterly destroy a person.' 


	10. CHAPTER 10: HAVING YOUR PRIDE STOMPED ON...

CHAPTER 10: HAVING YOUR PRIDE STOMPED ON  
  
A/N: Still not mine. Check back tomorrow. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! EVEN BAD REVIEWS ARE APPRECIATED JUST TO LET ME KNOW THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY READ THIS!  
  
*~~~~*  
  
Thursday passed through it's time and as soon as it came around, it went around, and with it, everything and everyone went back to normal. Caitie was back to her flirty, smiling self, Cailie was back to shooting daggers at Peter, James couldn't get Lily out of his head, Jessi just rolled with everything, Remus was lost in his own mind, and Sirius was attempting to figure out the best way to ask out his best friend-turned-sex- interest on a date to Hogsmeade.  
He wasn't really too sure of how this was all going to turn out. After all, Ashley was, for all her stupid remarks and mellow-dramatics, quite the much smarter then the average bubble-headed pretty face he asked out on a regular basis, and it required a bit more thinking. He figured he couldn't sue just another stupid pick-up line, as Ashley had flipped out on the last average git that had done that to her, and created quite the scene.  
'But then again,' Sirius thought, 'I'm not just another average git, and making a scene was exactly what Ashley did best.' This wasn't an average fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants operation; it took practice, precision and skill. So exactly why he waltzed on over to the Ravenclaw table at dinner time that evening, quite unplanned, was really unknown to him, and what came out of his mouth just made matters worse,  
"You're fucking hot!"  
'Damn!" He thought to himself, biting down hard on his tongue to make sure it didn't come loose again. He had had a whole speech prepared, and it definitely didn't involve the words 'fucking' and 'hot.' It also wasn't supposed to take place in front of the whole school, where Ashley was at her dramatic peak. He had now fully succeeded in making himself look like the biggest prat in school, and was sure it could only get worse. He was supposed to be daft, sexy, and seductive, so why was he all of the sudden acting like Snivellus and his greasy friends? He sadly looked down at his feet, still not trusting himself to speak.  
"MY GOD, SIRIUS, I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THEN THAT. FIRSTLY, YOU'RE ONLY MY FRIEND, AND ONLY MY FRIEND, YOU HEAR ME?" Everyone turned their heads to listen to the latest bit of drama coming from juiciest people to gossip about in school.  
"SECONDLY, I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT KISS WAS ONLY A DARE, A DARE, SIRIUS, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN ANY IDEAS, LIKE I SAID, WE'RE FRIENDS!" Her hands waved wildly all over the place, pointing at him and her eyes rolling and her head bouncing so dangerously it looked as if her glasses would fly off at any moment. Sirius looked up at her, rather helplessly and Ashley started to feel a little bit bad, but not enough to just abandon her audience.  
"And you have ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to disrespect me in that way. I don't care if you were named sexiest man alive, YOU DON'T TALK TO A GIRLIE LIKE THAT!" And she stomped off, not before giving him a little wink, but Sirius was to upset to take it as a good sign. He knew she had only said the last part because if the drama-queen she was, but it still stung. She didn't have to embarrass him like that. A man's pride, especially one as big as the Marauder's, whose ego was constantly being built up, did not take it lightly as it was ripped from him, stomped on, beaten to a pulp, and then cast aside just as quickly. No, Sirius did not take this very well at all. He turned around, rather meekly, but then smiled, not about to let anyone think that the great Sirius Black was really going to let a girl get to him. He stated loudly, "Ah, the drama, the angst, the pain, so naive, so young, anyone who does happen to be interested in the best night of there, by the way, can meet me in my dorm tonight, no prior knowledge or friendship with the one and only Sirius Black is needed!" With that he made his way back to the Gryffindor table, head inflated just as much as it had been before this whole little incident, knowing all the girls were now staring at him with awe and the guys with respect once again.  
*~~~*  
  
"Hey, Padfoot, Ash is staring at you again, she's doing the little puppy dog face. You going to respond?" James asked, inclining his head in the direction of The Girlies. "No," he replied bitterly, still smarting from the wounds ripped open the previous night. They were sitting in the far corner of the courtyard, doing the immense amount of homework given to them the previous week. "You're loss, looks like Snivelly's taken over for you." James replied, looking very disgusted by the whole scene. At these words, Sirius looked up, suddenly silent, and looking very protective in a very dog-like manner, but still didn't make any sort of attempt to move or defend Ashley. "Get away from me, you creep!" Ashley squealed as Severus Snape began to advance on her without warning. Caitie and Jessi had left for Quidditch practice, and Cailie was probably fraternizing with the enemy (as of current, Sirius, who had been a complete jerk last night, not that she hadn't been, but she was allowed to be a jerk. She was a Girlie, for God's sake.) Snape looked around, and upon setting his sight's on the Marauder's, who were looking as if they were about to come over there and strange him to death, he backed off and retreated, but he wasn't gone for long, oh no, not long at all, he'd be back, sooner then she thought. He laughed to himself and disappeared into the shadows of the school. Cailie slinked her arms around Sirius and gave him a hug, and then sat herself down in his lap. Sirius was definitely surprised, but in a very pleasant way. They talked for a while, what about, Sirius couldn't really remember. The only thing that mattered was the end of the conversation, which went something like, "You want to go somewhere with me in Hogsmeade tomorrow?" "Why of course" Cailie replied in that amazingly hot French accent, and they walked inside holding hands, Sirius's pride fully restored. 


	11. CHAPTER 11: A TRIP TO HOGSMEADE

CHAPTER 11: A TRIP TO HOGSMEADE  
  
A/N: Once again, nothing belongs to me  
  
*~~~*  
  
The Marauder's could, of course, go to Hogsmeade whenever they pleased, on account of knowing every single passageway out of the castle. The Girlies could go to Hogsmeade anytime they wanted on account of them being best friends with the Marauder's. The Marauder's and the Girlies knew that there were rules in place that prevented them from using these passageways, but they also knew that rules were meant to be broken. Furthermore, they knew that using one's head, being smart, being able to think on your feet, making friend's with people in high places and behind the scenes, and a little sucking up could go a long way in this school. Being the top of the school wasn't easy, but it definitely had its perks.  
But, today was a scheduled Hogsmeade date, and they didn't need to use any of this, so there were no worries.  
Caitie and Jessi were chatting animatedly about a new line of wizarding robes that they had seen in 'Witch Weekly' last night, Cailie was talking to Ashley about which of the Chudley Cannon players was cuter, Remus, James and Sirius were all discussing ways to get some Fire whiskey from the weird looking guy who supposedly sold it to underage witches and wizards at the Hogshead and Peter, well Peter was panting and huffing down the stairs, trying to catch up to the group. He had forgotten his money and had ran back to get it, and they were all making there way towards the front gates to get carriages to take them to Hogsmeade. The caretaker, Romulus Custar, was checking off the names of the students as they went by on his list of kids who had permission to attend from their parent/guardian.  
*~~~*  
The eight fifteen-year-olds (well, Caitie would be fifteen in a month) squashed happily into a four-person booth in the Three Broomsticks. Caitie, Remus, James and Peter sat on one side (Remus' arm draped casually over Caitie's shoulder) and on the other side were Sirius, Cailie (Cailie was sitting on Sirius' lap) Jessi and Ashley. They were squished together so much they could barely breathe, God forbid one of them be claustrophobic, but they were all talking and laughing gaily, as though they were one big happy family, (which, in a sense, they were.) A pretty young woman in her early twenties with a blue sequined dress and matching sparkling heels walked over to her favorite customers, smiling happily at their return. "It's great to see you guys again!" She said in a syrupy voice. "It's been to long, Rosie, to too long," said Remus in a long-suffering voice. "Missed ya, Rosie!" Squealed Caitie, who got up and tried to inch her way out to give her a hug, but it was to no avail. She just giggled stupidly and blew her a kiss. "Missed you too, hunny. Now what can I get you kids?" Sirius gave her a flirtatious grin and wiggled his eyebrows, "It's not what you can do for me, love, it's what I can do for you." James gagged and everyone else rolled their eyes, Madam Rosemerta rolled her eyes and laughed sarcastically, "Yes of course I was only waiting for the day a fifteen-year-old said that to me. Anyways, can you guys tell me what you want?" "Eight Fire Whiskey's" Said Peter, matter-of-factly. Remus smiled at the waitress innocently and Cailie laughed. "Seeing as you're fifteen, no can do, lovelies," She said wryly, her eyes twinkling. Pleading and sucking-up ensued. Finally, Rosie just rolled her eyes and wrote down '8 butter beers,' spun on her heel and click-clacked away. The chatter continued and the volume level rose as did the animation used in the conversation. A few tables away, Lily, Becca, and Sammie, (the blonde), were sitting sipping their butter beers quietly and discussing their 'First Day at Hogwarts' and other such memories, when they were rudely interrupted by Peter, who had been pushed out of the booth by Cailie, who was attempting to make her way to the restroom. He went flying into their table, knocking Becca's butter beer into her lap and practically sitting on Lily. He got up quickly and began to scurry away, but Becca caught him by the scruff of his neck and dragged him back. His eyes bulged and he let out a rather high- pitched squeak at the thought of what this girl had done to Sirius. "My God, you could at least have the decency to apologize, but I guess you Marauder's are above that." Peter began to mumble his apologies, but Sirius was grinning and nodding in the background, which didn't help matters much.  
  
"And just 'cause you're asshole of a friend over their thinks he's the big guy everywhere he goes, you will now be paying me for that butter beer you daintily slopped all over my front." James, who had been transfixed by the emerald-eyed girl just left of Becca, looked up suddenly, "If Evan's goes out with me, I'll buy all of you new butter beers, not to mention you'd definitely get with the 'in' crowd by association, Beck." But this was the exact opposite of what Becca had been looking for.  
They were not looking for a bargain with James, especially not one that involved dating him. The trio stood up promptly with their drinks and walked purposefully towards the other table, spilling the remainder of their drinks on the unfortunate heads of Sirius, James, and Peter, and that walked out quite calmly. The table was thunderstruck, and it took everything they others had to merely smirk at them, and they were busting at the seams from silent laughter. This awkwardness continued until Cailie came back from the bathroom and saw Sirius and immediately cracked a grin and laughed hysterically, the tension immediately melting away.  
They cleaned up the mess and talked some more before Sirius said he needed some air. He also grabbed Cailie's hand which signified that she too would be getting some air, whether she needed it or not.  
The two walked around Hogsmeade village for a time hand-in-hand, not talking much besides the occasional question or answer. They were both enjoying this quiet, serene moment, a break from their hectic lifestyles and knowing fully that right now was all that mattered.  
"You know, technically we aren't even going out yet," she pointed out to him, smiling coyly, her brown eyes shining, Sirius laughed, his eyes sparkling as well,  
"I suppose I thought it was a given at this point, but if it really matters that much to you," he put his arms behind her, lifted her off the ground honeymoon style and spun her around, both laughing a laugh of pure joy. "Cailie Dep," he said once he had stopped spinning, "will you go out with me?"  
She looked up at him from her position in his arms and pretended to debate it for a minute before saying, "Yes Sirius Black, I will go out with you, yes I will!" And she gave him a peck on the lips.  
*~~~*  
The other six had gone to Zonko's for a bit, but Caitie and Remus quickly got bored of this, and feeling a little bit more enclosed then they did in the Three Broomsticks, they said they were going for a walk as well.  
  
They walked towards the outer edge of the village and then sat down across from each other on some large rocks and just talked. About anything and everything. Eventually the topic came to Quidditch.  
"You know the first game of the season is Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, right?" Remus asked teasingly. Caitie smiled and nodded, then raised her eyebrows numerous times,  
"Should be fun."  
Caitie was the Ravenclaw seeker and Jessi one of the two Ravenclaw beaters. On the Gryffindor team, James was the seeker and Sirius was one of the beaters. The four were all fierce competitors, being the best at anything they did, and couldn't stand to lose and know that they were second to someone in anything. James was an outstanding Quidditch player overall, and an especially good seeker. In fact, this was probably where he got his ego from to begin with. There was no denying he had talent, and lots of it. Sirius was a good beater, he fit the mold perfectly, and anyone who wasn't frightened of Jessi with a bat needed to visit a psychologist, immediately. Caitie was a very good flyer in general. She did tricks and moves on a broom that many people couldn't manage with two feet planted firmly on the ground. Small and light, she also had amazing amounts of speed and agility. But where actual seeking came in, there was no doubt in anyone's mind (except maybe Caitie's) that James was better. He was more observant and had better reflexes, which gave him the utmost advantage in finding the speedy, small golden Snitch. Caitie's only hope was that she could tail James and once he'd spotted the Snitch, she'd be able to put on a burst of speed and leave him in the dust.  
"Who do you thinks going to win?" asked Remus, dragging Caitie out of her thoughts,  
"Us, of course, that's a rather unnecessary question." They both laughed, although secretly Remus thought in his heart that Gryffindor had a way better chance of winning.  
Their conversation then moved on to O.W.L's. "I'm only really afraid about Potions, because I want to be a Healer, but you need to have a NEWT in practically everything. I'm afraid I won't get into the NEWT Potions class, it'll definitely be my downfall," Caitie sighed; she didn't like fear, or anyone who showed it, especially when she did herself. Remus, seeing her discomfort, quickly changed the subject.  
"I think we should be heading back, it's getting kind of late."  
*~~~*  
The eight of them met up at the exit from Hogsmeade (this was totally unplanned) and made there way back to the school. Dinner that night was a jovial affair and the Marauder's as well as the Girlies both went to bed that night, happy, peaceful, and contented. 


	12. CHAPTER 12: MEMOIRS

CHAPTER 12: MEMOIRS  
  
A/N Still not mine, please review, review, review!  
  
All to soon, Monday morning came, and with it, Jessi's yearly health and fitness plan. She had made one up every year since she was twelve and had made the Quidditch team. Caitie had joined her almost immediately, because she needed to get in shape as well. The next year Ashley and Cailie had jumped on board, knowing it could only improve their figures.  
It didn't exactly make any one of them want to jump for joy at the thought of getting up early to huff and puff around though. They rolled out of bed, mumbling and groaning, and looked around bleary-eyed at the 'exercise' room Jessi had set up. There were four yoga mats, some weights, a bench press, and a treadmill. Knowing what to do, they all took their places on a mat and began stretching out.  
*~~~*  
Down in the Great Hall, the Marauder's were stuffing themselves with breakfast to prepare for the long day of classes ahead. All were eating except for one. Pushing a stray strand of sandy-blonde hair out of his face, he looked worriedly at the Ravenclaw table, and who was present; or more precisely: who wasn't. Four good seats in the middle of the table were curiously empty. Usually they were filled with the bodies of four teenagers, a bubbly blonde, a loud curly black-haired, a flirtatious light brown head, and a sophisticated brunette were all missing from there seats, the only other indication that the four were missing was that the resident boy population was not swooning every time they looked in that direction. Remus turned to Sirius, who was eating his egg and tomato sandwich greedily, and asked,  
"You know where your girl and her friends are?"  
Sirius looked up, looking highly unconcerned,  
"Nope. Guess we'll see them sooner or later, all's well so long as I get some much-needed attention." Sirius chuckled to himself and Remus rolled his eyes,  
"Firstly, you and attention deprived are words that never need be in the same sentence," Sirius pouted, but Remus continued on in terms that his friend would most likely understand, "And secondly, if the Girlies are hurt, not only will life be extremely boring, but none of us will be getting any sort of action for awhile." Remus let the words sink in, and although Sirius rightly believed that he'd never be devoid of the ability to get some action while he was at Hogwarts, the thought of his having to actually go and look for a sufficient girl and actually charm her into his bed just exhausted him, so he became horrified and grabbed Remus by the arm, half-dragging him in the direction of the Ravenclaw Common Room.  
"Right you are Moony, let's go." As soon as the two got up, James looked up and said,  
"Where are you going in such a hurry, Padfoot? Honestly, most girls, Cailie included are not up for a snogging fest at this hour. Oh," he spotted Remus, "you really need to ask Smiley out when she's more then half awake." Remus went red and shook his head, attempting to explain, but at that moment, Lily and company walked in and that was the end of James' ability to speak. He pushed his fingers through his jet-black hair so it stood up on end, and Remus rolled his eyes, knowing that that was the end of their conversation, and allowed himself to be towed away by an increasingly agitated Sirius.  
*~~~*  
Sirius stated the Ravenclaw password clearly, having been told what it was by Cailie the day before. The duo walked in on quite the interesting scene; Jessi was sitting on top of a vanity table cross-legged, putting on make-up, Ashley was...well...meditating (or at least that was what it looked like) Caitie was eating a blueberry muffin and scrambling to finish what looked like potions homework, and Cailie had just walked out of the bathroom in only a fluffy white towel. Sirius' eyes' widened considerably and as no one noticed the two boys walk in, they all jumped when Sirius spoke huskily,  
"Well, that's a nice sight to see in the morning." Cailie squealed and ran into the dorm, towel flying. Sirius and Remus just laughed and Ashley got up and slapped Sirius upside the head. Sirius rubbed his head and asked,  
"What was that for?"'  
"For taking me out of my meditated state," Ashley said matter-of- factly, and the rest of the room rolled their eyes. Jessi looked up curiously and asked,  
"Why are you guys here anyway?" Remus thought for a second, attempting to remember exactly why he had come here. What was that purpose again? Ah yes...  
"We didn't see you guys down at breakfast and we wanted to make sure everything was alright," He looked specifically at Caitie, who had not made a remark about the whole dream incident since it had happened. She quickly replied, as if to reassure him,  
"No we were just working out, and since we haven't in a long time, it kind of took longer then usual." The three grinned sheepishly, and Cailie came meandering into the Common Room, lost in thought.  
"Whatcha thinking 'bout, babe?' Sirius asked, sitting himself down next to her on a mat. She took a long time to reply, her eyes were glazed over and she had a serene, dream-like expression on her face.  
"Our first day at Hogwarts. Meeting you, and everyone else." Sirius smiled,  
"Yeah, that was an interesting day if there ever was one."  
~~~Flashback~~~  
"Yo, yo, dude in the uniform!" A tiny girl stood in the middle of the platform, screaming loudly in an American accent towards a distressed looking assistant. She had bright blue eyes that sparkled endlessly, with dark brown hair pulled back in a high ponytail, bursting with volcanic curls. She wore bright pink leggings L.A Gear high-top sneakers, black leg warmers and a black t-shirt that said in pink letters, 'Stayin' Alive.' Behind her stood an equally small, timid young woman who shared the girls blue eyes, and although her hair was two shades lighter, she had Shirley Temple curls. The 'dude' made his way over to the pair.  
"What do you ladies need?" He asked with strained politeness. The woman looked hesitant to speak, but the young girl had enough gusto for the both of them.  
"I need to find Platform 9 ¾, I'm going to boarding school today!" She stated proudly. The guy rolled his eyes and just walked away muttering, not even bothering to answer.  
'Damn Americans.'  
"Damn British people." The girl pushed her cart angrily towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten and leaned against it to think. But think she was unable to. With only a "Whoa!" The girl fell into the barrier and landed on the other side, stuff on top of her, her on top of an angry young girl with long brown hair and big, brown eyes.  
"Condamner, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd get off me!" The girl moaned in a barely understandable French accent, so that her I's sounded like ee's. She got off cheerfully, pushing her cart off herself and then offered a hand to the girl,  
"My name's Caitie. Caitie Roark pleased to meet you." The other girl stared at her disdainfully, and sneered, swished her hair and walked off. Caitie muttered,  
"Well aren't we in a lovely mood today." Caitie eventually gathered that this was indeed Platform nine and three-quarters and she made her way awkwardly onto the train. She found an empty compartment towards the back, shoved her stuff above and under the seats and flopped down. She was beginning to feel lonely and a little apprehensive, two feelings quite unknown tot eh young girl, when two boys barreled in, laughing so hard they looked as if they might collapse. Caitie looked towards the newcomers with growing interest, but they didn't even seem to notice her.  
"Oy, mate I think that was pretty good. The poor girl didn't even know what hit her! What was her name again? Lily, well Lily's going to be smelling like dung bombs for awhile now," said one who had dark hair that fell over his black eyes and tanned skin.  
'He's very cute,' Caitie thought and looked over to the other one, who was laughing equally as hard. He had untidy black hair and hazel eyes and was sort of lanky looking. She watched in semi-amusement as they gradually calmed down and suddenly spotted the girl in the compartment. Immediately they composed themselves, one ruffled his already messy hair and the other stuck out his hand and said in a considerably deeper voice,  
"Hullo, malady, my name is Sirius Black and this here is my chum James Potter." Caitie gave him her hand and he put it to his lips and kissed it delicately. Caitie stifled a giggle and blushed slightly,  
"Hi. My name's Caitie Roark pleased to meet you." Sirius cringed at her accent and asked,  
"You're American, then?" Caitie nodded, but she doubted anyone noticed because at that moment two girls and a boy entered, one of the girls being the one Caitie had met earlier. The other girl had curly jet- black hair, tan skin and glasses that framed her dark brown eyes. The boy had sandy blonde hair and deep brown eyes. They all looked rather frustrated, and the girl with the glasses was talking loudly and angrily,  
"...Can't believe they made us sit back here where all the rejects sit," she noticed there was other people in the compartment. "Oh, hi, my name's Ashley, but I won't be staying here, or going to some idiotic magic school so I can say stupid things and carry a black stick around, so don't become friends with me." They all gaped at her, attempting to process the statement that had just been made. James spoke first,  
"Well, I don't know but I think you'll find it to be a really cool school," he looked up to see the boy, "Hey, I've met you before, haven't I? You're..." He struggled to come up with the name.  
"Yes you have, we met in Flourish and Blots a few days ago, you're James Potter and that's Sirius Black, and my name's Remus Lupin." They all sat down and were talking about which house they wanted to be in, (all except Ashley, who was sitting in the corner, sullenly, arms wrapped around her legs) when two others walked in. One was a small blonde girl and the other was a squat, mousy boy with brown hair. They introduced themselves to be Jessi Langane and Peter Pettigrew. They were also eleven and in there first year. By the time a lady with a food cart had arrived, they had all established who they were, where they were from, and that they were friends now. Even Ashley had begun to join in the conversation. They all got some food, and Cailie went to get money out of her pocket, and her face went a sickly gray color.  
"My money! It's gone!" Caitie laughed and pulled out a black velvet satchel from her leg warmer. Cailie grabbed it and they all looked at her, stunned.  
"I swear I won't steal anything form any of you guys, but that's what you get for being so mean to me before." She held up her hands as if to say 'I come in peace,' and after a little persuasion they believed her. It took a bit more conniving and sucking up to get the lady to not owl the headmaster on the spot, but eventually she left them alone, to there own devices, which was not necessarily the best thing to do, for leaving them to there own devices for the next five years would prove to be quite the dangerous feat indeed. 


	13. CHAPTER 13: AND THE PLOT THICKENS

CHAPTER 13: AND THE PLOT THICKENS  
  
Disclaimer: Still don't own anything but the plot.  
*~~~*  
  
No one really wanted to admit it, but during the week a blustery cold had set in. Winter was coming, and so was the first Quidditch match, which everyone was getting more and more apprehensive about. The colder it got the harder it would be to concentrate on the game, and at this rate, five minutes into it their butts would be frozen to the broom. Everything went on as normal besides the fact that Potions, Herbology, and Care of Magical Creatures were like torture with the weather. On this particular Wednesday morning, the Marauder's were heading back from a completely disastrous Herbology lesson. They all had cloaks and gloves on, their faces and ears were very red, and they were struggling against the wind back towards the Heavenly warm castle.  
"B-bloody hell, it feels like my e-ears have frozen off," said James, teeth chattering.  
"Cheer up, mate, got Charms next, and old Flitwick's a big pushover," Sirius said pulling his cloak up towards his face. They walked the rest of the distance in shivery silence, and finally made it to the castle. They were excruciatingly close to the classroom when they noticed a, pale, greasy and altogether freakish boy blocking the entrance for some unknown reason.  
"'Ello Snivelly, nice to see you again."  
"Damn you, Potter." James just grinned even wider, and said,  
"Although I really would love to stick around and chat, I've got Charms, and you are, as of current, in my way."  
"Oh but of course," spat Snape, "And no one gets in the way of the almighty Potter and his little friends, everyone just falling all over to bathe you in your glory."  
"Too right," James said happily, and Sirius added,  
"Well, see, Snivelly, we at least do bathe. You on the other hand, have obviously never learned how..." but he was interrupted by Snape taking out his wand and muttering a string of swearwords. Before he actually was able to hex the four into next year, however, Remus took out his wand and stated,  
"Peficatrus Totalus!" A jet of green light flashed and hit Severus Square in the jaw. He keeled over straight as a board and Lupin smiled satisfactorily. Sirius kicked him out of the way of the door and the four sat down in seats next to each other just as the class began. They all smiled at each other in the goofy, mischievous grin we all know and love, and waited until Flitwick had given out instructions before beginning their conversation, not even bothering to attempt the charm they were supposedly learning.  
"So, Mr. Potter believes Mr. Lupin showed his peers some exemplary spell work with his good chum Snivelly back there."  
"Mr. Lupin thinks he is just lucky to have not gotten caught," Remus said, pointing to his Prefect badge, and waving his wand lazily in a half- assed attempt to charm the bullfrog in front of him to stop croaking. Surprisingly, it kept moving it's mouth, but no sound emitted from it.  
"Mr. Black is really quite curious as to how Mr. Lupin got his badge in the first place, seeing as how he is a Marauder, for God's sake."  
"Mr. Potter thinks it is because Mr. Lupin just manages to never get caught, and is quite jealous of this particular skill, and if he gets his way, (which he always does) he will know how by the end of the day."  
"And Mr. Pettigrew is really tired of trying to talk in Messer's. Not to mention, attempting to figure out the third person stuff." Sirius sniggered,  
"For the record, Mr. Black thinks Mr. Pettigrew should really learn to multi-task, as well as how to silence the damn Raven, it's annoying me." Peter gave him a death-glare that rivaled Cailie's, and Sirius threw up his hands and smiled innocently. At this moment the Professor walked by, causing all four to quickly grab their wands and shout a little over- exuberantly,  
"SILENCIO!" The animals went zooming towards the backs of the room and bounced off the wall, unable to make any noises, or rather, unable to do much of anything.  
"Well done boys!" Flitwick squealed, "Although I must say, you might want to try, well...err...a little less enthusiasm next time." They looked at him sheepishly, he waddled away, and the four re-pocketed their wands.  
"Now, back to business," said James in undertone. "What operations and doings are the Marauder's currently formulating?"  
"Err...well, I have Prefect duties tonight, with Jessi."  
"And we have Quidditch practice," Sirius said pointing to himself and James.  
"Good Lord!" exclaimed James, running his hands through his hair exasperatedly, not even noticing the girl behind him who had been avidly staring at Sirius, and now had toppled out of her chair in surprise. Sirius quickly got up and helped the blushing girl up,  
"I'm sorry, about my friend, Miss... Err..."  
"Bones."  
"Right well, I hope you can forgive my prat-of-a-friend, Jamsie over there, he's a little bit...unstable, if you get my drift." The girl giggled, blushing immensely and Sirius sat back down, where James proceeded to hit him over the head with his Intermediate Charms book.  
"I'll give you prat."  
"Oww." Sirius said in mock anguish, and then tilted his chair back and winked at the girl, who was still staring, and said,  
"Told you, babe." Remus rolled his eyes and James just grinned, shaking his head, and then continued on as if nothing had occurred,  
"So anyway, do you realize we haven't even really pulled a prank this year? We're acting truly..." he wrinkled his nose in disgust "normal, and boring, and goody-goody! This must stop!" Sirius nodded grandly,  
"Hear, hear!" and they all pretended to click glasses. After they had finished grinning wickedly at each other, Peter spoke.  
"So, Remus, I think a full moon's coming up, am I correct?" James shushed him quickly and Peter lowered his voice before continuing on,  
"So do you think we'll be able to pull off the spell this time?" looking especially at James and Sirius. Sirius, noticing Peter looking to him, inclined his head in James's direction, and waited.  
"No, not yet, I don't think." The three others groaned and the class turned to look at them oddly. They quickly pulled out there wands and pretended to be working on the charm. "I'm coming close to deciphering the end part of the spell though, and then after that we only need to translate the 'thought directions' so to speak, and then all we need is practice." They nodded and then went to there charm work, as so not to appear suspicious. Strange thing was, everyone was cleaning up and leaving, and Professor Flitwick was standing over them, eyebrows raised.  
"Boys? I dismissed class about five minutes ago. You may go, although by all means, stay during you're lunch period and work on the charm!" He smiled at them, eyes twinkling.  
"Uh, sorry Professor, but I think we've got it." Remus said and they all scrambled out of their seats to go to lunch.  
  
*~~~*  
  
The Girlies sat in the back of Potions, listening only half- heartedly. It was there second to last class of the day, and Transfiguration didn't really count. As strict as she was, not even Professor McGonagall could deny the Girlie's talent in this subject. Potions, though, was an entirely different story. The only one who had a truly firm grip on the subject was Jessi, and that was really only because her dad was a potion brewer for a hospital back in Italy. It didn't make her like it any more, though, as they had an elderly, snappish batty old woman, Professor Gloria Marchbanks, who while by no means Slytherien- oriented-evil, was practically deaf, irritable, and likely to go off on tangents that had nothing to do with the subject. Rumor had it that she would be retiring soon, or maybe she'd die, but the student's didn't really get there hopes up, seeing as how death had not deterred Professor Binns in the least. Today they were to be working in partners on a potion that was supposed to put a person to sleep for a good amount of time, and to hand a flask up at the end of class. Caitie and Cailie quickly paired up, as did Ashley and Jessi. Across the room, the fifth year Slythereins, who they regretfully had to share this lesson with, were pairing up.  
The girls began there potion, and for awhile, all seemed to be going well. This peaceful calm, of course, did not stay for the entire lesson. Caitie and Cailie, as intelligent as they were, were also remarkably stubborn, and both took to heart the saying 'My way or the highway.'  
"You cut the roots, Caitie, and I'll stir, I'm better at potions then you, so just do as I say, and we'll be fine." Caitie sighed exasperatedly,  
"Yes, but I want to do more then cut the damn roots, seeing as how I've known how to do that since I was three." Cailie looked at her pointedly,  
"Just. Cut. The. Roots. And. You. Can. Do. Something. Later." She stated as if talking to a five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum.  
"God, Cailie, you really need to stop treating me like I'm five. I think I can handle this, it looks simple enough." She took out her wand and began stirring the half-made potion.  
"No no no! You're doing it all wrong!" Cailie grabbed Caitie's wand from her and held it out of her reach. Caitie made a lunge for it and soon there was an all-out war. Unbeknownst to them, Snape was currently taunting the other two Girlies.  
"You're friends better watch there backs. And I'd be careful if I were you, too."  
"Oh yes, and I'm so afraid of big bad, Snape. You are such a git." Jessi said, not removing her gaze from the simmering cauldron. He chuckled softly,  
"You really should be, you and you're mud blood friends," he said oily, inclining his head towards the two other girls, who were currently pummeling the life out of each other, "Guess they're finally coming out the closet."  
"You are so disgusting, Snape, you really need to get a life and sod off. Or some friends, or someone to insult who really cares." Said Ashley quietly, through gritted teeth. It took every fiber of there being not to push the cauldron over on the asshole. They needn't have worried, though, because at that instant, Cailie had rammed Caitlin into their cauldron with a force equal to that of a hurricane's and it tipped over in that direction, the potion splattering onto Snape, but also unfortunately Ashley and Jessi. The three stumbled around woozily and fell over into a deep sleep. Stopped in mid-animation, Caitie and Cailie looked up, and burst into hysterical laughter and the havoc they had wreaked, all anger dissipated. There smiles were wiped from their faces, though, when Marchbanks 'tut tutted' her way on over to them and said,  
"For disrupting the class, a weeks worth of detention. For making a mess in the dungeon, twenty-five points from your house each. For putting three of your classmates into a sleep that'll probably last a good three days, another week's worth of detention."  
"But Professor!" gasped Caitie, feeling very sick all of the sudden.  
"No If's, and's, or but's, Miss Roark. Well, class is dismissed, I suppose." She tottered off leaving two very pissed off girls to deal with three sleeping students.  
"Well, could be worse." Said Cailie dully.  
"How?" Caitie snapped.  
"You could be one of these three." She said pointing at her friend's and her enemy.  
"Right." Said Caitie, and they laughed, linking arms and walking out, not bothering to do anything about the fact that her best friends were currently snoring on the floor of the potions dungeon.  
  
*~~~*  
The next morning a very grumpy looking duo sat at the Ravenclaw table. They were grumpy for three reasons: 1. They had to serve two weeks worth of detention with their insane Potions professor cleaning the dungeon. 2. Neither were morning people to begin with, and minus their cheery friends to intervene when they grated on each other's nerves, the case was hopeless. 3. Cailie had PMS, and was willing to hex anyone into a parallel universe who annoyed her, which tended to put anyone close to her on edge. Sirius was just about to go over to confront his girlfriend to see why she was behaving this way (not such a good idea) when the owl post came and he heard James say in a shaky I-am-in-shock-and-suppressing-my-anger voice,  
"Oh my God. Sirius, come take a look at this..." 


	14. CHAPTER 14: REVELATIONS AND A QUIDDITCH ...

CHAPTER 14: REVELATIONS AND A QUIDDITCH GAME  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never was. Never will be.  
  
*~~~*  
  
Dear Students, We regret to inform you that due to the need for the staff and student body's needs to recuperate, and with the events of last night, contact and/or visit their families; classes and all extracurricular activities are canceled for today, November 29, 1980. Should you need to speak with any member of the staff, they will be available all day in their offices. A student support system has been set up in the Hospital Wing, complete with psychologists. Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely, Professor Minerva McGonogall Deputy Headmistress  
  
"Yes!" Shouted Sirius, punching his fist in the air, "Now I don't have to skive-off to go find Cailie." James was on the rug in front of the hearth in the Gryffindor Common room playing a game of Wizard's Chess half-heartedly with Pete, and Remus was sprawled on the couch reading the paper for the billionth time, brow furrowed. None of the Marauder's had made any move to go to class, even before McGonogall had come in frowning with the notice.  
Sirius pushed Remus' feet off the end of the couch and sat down, lost in thought. "Dunno where she could of gone, though," He said thoughtfully. Remus just frowned from behind the paper, and James said dully to Peter,  
"Check mate," and Sirius continued talking to himself,  
"I mean, I know the paper was disturbing and its upset and scared us all but she didn't seem the type to just run off like that, she doesn't usually allow those things to get..." He was interrupted mid-ramble when Remus got up abruptly and gave him a glare, "Jeez, if looks could kill..." Sirius began huffily, but Remus silenced him with another look, and spoke quietly and slowly, voice trembling with rage, "For being Cailie's boyfriend and one of Smiley's best friends, you sure don't know a lot about them" At this James and Peter looked up, interested, and Sirius gave him a questioning look, "Firstly, you apparently didn't read the article very well, one of the attacks was in a village in Paris, France, where Cailie lives." Realization dawned on Sirius' face and James frowned darkly, "Well, did anyone she know, well, ya know...get...killed?" Remus rolled his eyes at him, "Her older sister was killed, Sirius, God you are so dense!" All three looked up at Lupin now, shocked and very bewildered, "B-but, Cailie...she's a..." Sirius trailed off, though rally confused, "Smiley and Cailie are muggle-born." Remus said shortly before storming towards the dorm. "Oh shit." "You can say that again, Padfoot old buddy."  
*~~~*  
  
Caitie sat in the far corner of the Hospital Wing in a chair next to two beds that had been pushed hastily to the side. Her hair was volcanic and frizzy, and bits stuck to her lip-gloss. Black tears, mixing with mascara ran down her face and she sat in fetal position rocking back and forth, her body heaving with sobs. The rickety chair looked in danger of tipping over every time she rocked backwards, and in her hand she desperately clutched a torn, worn, tear-stained edition of the Daily Prophet. With her free hand, she grabbed the limp hand in the bed. The girl in the bed was the sleeping version of Jessi, and in the bed behind her was Ashley. As no one really know what else to do with them, this was where they had ended up and where they would remain until they waked. She spoke softly to the angelic face, grief evident in her cracked, hollow voice. "I c-can't believe words...paper can bring on such horrors. I can't believe this is happening. How can p-people be s-so cruel? It's such a heartless t- thing to do. Killing people for no reason, other then blood. D-dirty blood, c-common blood, it's all the same in the end. M-magic is supposed to be deeper then that. People are supposed to be smarter then that, especially one's who c-can wave a wand around and make things that are so beautiful and amazing. How c-can someone hate another person so much without e-even knowing them? I...don't get it." With this she burst into tears again and sobbed loudly, tears flowing steadily from her face and onto Jessi's, who remained undisturbed. She looked down at the paper once more, hoping vainly that it would say something else. But it was no use, it had said the same thing all morning, and no amount of crying, talking, or re-reading would reverse it.  
*~~~* Late last night the magic world in Europe suffered one of the deadliest, most un-provoked attacks and ruthless acts of terrorism ever. In two areas that are populated by witches and wizards as well as muggles, Olney, Britain and Paris, France, witches and wizards who had muggle spouses, as well as muggles who had witch or wizard sons and/or daughters were killed. Almost nobody was spared, and over thirty are dead. The Minister of Magic, James Gibbons, made a statement early this morning in which he said the two attacks were connected. Evidence shows that a gang of pureblood witches and wizards, who call themselves the Death Eaters are responsible for the attacks. If they are taking orders from anyone, or who this person may be is still unknown. For now, the Minister of Magic advises everyone to stay calm, but remain vigilant and cautious. If you have any information on the subject, please Owl the Auror Division at the Ministry of Magic. All personal information is kept private.  
*~~~*  
Cailie sat on the stone ground in the Astronomy Tower, staring blankly into space. Her eyes were unfocused, and her face showed no sign of tears, nor did it display any type of emotion. If it weren't for the fact that she moved her head and took a deep shuddering breath every once in awhile, Sirius would've questioned if it was actually Cailie, or just a doll replica. After watching her for quite some time, he sat down next to her, and she jumped a little and made a squeal-like noise.  
"Hey, girlie, how you doing?" He knew it was a completely stupid and redundant question, but he really didn't really know what else to say. Cailie promptly shushed him though, and grabbed his hand and held onto it for dear life. He tried to loosen her grip a little, but she only gripped his hand harder. His face contorted with pain, he began to tell her she was hurting him, but she only shushed him yet again. Taking the hint, he fell silent and looked at Cailie's face, taking in her creamy skin, and her large brown doe eyes, that were always searching, always searching for something. Knowledge? Love? Friendship? He wasn't sure he'd ever know. They sat like this for quite sometime until Cailie said quietly,  
"My sister always said if you sat quietly enough, close to the sky, you'd hear the wind blowing, and it would sing to you, a beautiful song. I never really knew what she meant, and I never was able to ask her to explain properly..." she trailed off and her eyes filled with tears. She buried her head in Sirius' chest and tears rolled down her face, almost silently. This was all quite new to Sirius, and had not a clue as to what to do. Finally he settled on putting one arm around her waist and with his other hand he ran his fingers through her long brown hair.  
*~~~* On Thursday, two things happened. Ashley and Jessi woke up, and Cailie went home. Classes resumed and the world kept on turning, leaving a few people behind, stuck in its wake. Saturday morning Cailie came back with a brave smile, and although the other girls made motions to want to talk about what had happened to her, she ignored them whenever they brought the subject up. They didn't really have time to dwell on the tragedy, though, because Saturday was the first Quidditch game. Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. It was highly anticipated because it was well known that the two heads of the school, Caitie Roark and James Potter would be going up against each other. Oh, and it would be interesting to see who killed the other first, Sirius or Jessi. 'Course, they didn't really know how much pain these two groups had been going through, and were expecting a good match, and the four had to give there audience what they wanted. It was called acting, and in there years at Hogwarts, they had become quite skilled at it. Remus, Peter, Ashley, and Cailie sat next to each other in the stands, talking and laughing politely, not daring to delve beneath the surface, pretending nothing was wrong. Caitie gave a "whoop!" from her position on her broom and did a quick handstand on the broom to show off and let off positive energy as she saw one of the Ravenclaw Chasers, Elisa Zulrino scored. The score was 60-40, Ravenclaw. Now she just catch the Snitch and she'd be home free. She quickly rolled over on her broom to avoid being hit by a bludger and stuck her tongue out at Sirius, and then giggled at the sight she saw. He had that goofy smile on again, but his nose was bleeding freely and Caitie couldn't see how he could even concentrate, let alone laugh and joke with his teammates as if they were at a rather boring social event. His nose was bleeding, well, because him and Jessi had both game to hit a bludger but her swing was off and she had hit him right in the nose forcefully. She had immediately apologized and had been apologizing profusely until she let a bludger go directly by her and the Captain, (who was also a Chaser, Jay Chang) yelled at her to stop flirting with Black. Turning a deep shade of crimson, she'd quickly went back to slamming bludgers into the opposite end of the pitch. Caitie's stomach quickly gave a little flip-flop as she saw a golden glint near the other end of the pitch and she groaned inwardly, realizing James was already hurtling towards it. Putting on a huge burst of speed, she became a tiny blue blur as she made her way towards the snitch. Her eyes watered as the wind blew against her fiercely. Trying her best not to blink, shield her face, and still catch the tiny, golden snitch, she was soon neck and neck with the stunned James.  
"How the hell did you catch up with me that fast?" He growled, but Caitie noticed there was a glint in his eyes. She shrugged her shoulders,  
"Honestly? I have idea." They both reached there arms out, making fruitless grabs at the ball which was darting back and forth, and suddenly dropped itself down about twenty feet. They both went into steep dives almost immediately, and they both moved there feet on top of the broom, still clinging to it in a squatting position in order to keep up the speed of the dive without toppling off. Once again they both reached there arms out, and knowing they were both going to hit the ground at breakneck speed in a millisecond if they didn't do something they both jumped off at the exact same time, arms reaching out towards the golden snitch. Hitting the ground with an "Oof," Caitie somersaulted over out of sheer force and James went sliding on his stomach along the grass, grinning triumphantly. Once Caitie realized he did indeed have the snitch she stood up and helped him up, grinning and shaking her head. "Nice game Potter." "You too, Smiley." 


	15. CHAPTER 15: DETENTION WITH THE RESIDENT ...

CHAPTER 15: DETENTION WITH THE RESIDENT LOON  
  
Disclaimer: Anything famous isn't mine. So don't sue.  
  
A/N R&R as always, and thanks to my most devoted reader, Becky! Love ya! Also thanks to Cailie, for reading and reviewing and editing my raw copies and giving me ideas and thanks to Neil for uhh....reading.  
*~~~*  
Seconds ticked by and turned into minutes, as minutes did into hours. Hours eventually faded into days. In short, time passed. People moved on, pretending to let go, pretending they didn't feel hurt and pain, pretending everything was great; there faces of indifference a mask to the world.  
  
Finally, there was one more week left in term, and after that there was a nice, long break. It was not at all desirable though, to spend a good deal of this week in the cold dungeons washing out the school supply of ancient cauldrons with muggle toothbrushes, accompanied by the slightly nutty Professor Marchbanks. But this was exactly what Cailie and Caitie were and would be doing. Mix in the little factor that Cailie had just lost her sister, and there were muggle-killing nutcases on the loose, and there was no doubt on anyone's mind that this would turn out to be an interesting night. They had already served the first half of their detention with Filch, and they quite honestly weren't sure which would be worse.  
The duo shivered as they walked down the steps.  
"Honestly, we are spending the best days of our life down here in damn detention," Cailie spat.  
Caitie sighed, "Well there is that little fact that we were brawling in the classroom. But yes, I agree we are wasting our time. Seeing as how we're best friends, but all we do is insult and share dark humor together."  
  
"Yes, but you started that one!" Caitie rolled her eyes, not wanting to get into another fight as of right now,  
"It takes two to tangle, love." Cailie just gave her a 'look' and they both continued on there way silently.  
Caitie heaved a great sigh as they reached the end of the dungeon- like corridor and faced a large stone, cold, gray, slab door that was easily camouflaged with the wall, and only the fire-lit torch that flickered shadows upon it eerily, showing the rusted hinges occasionally told otherwise.  
"Prepare yourself for a fun and interesting night in the lives of Cailie and Smiley, who have boys falling all over them, lots of homework, sexually charged pranksters for best friends and yet they prefer to clean out the schools cauldrons," Cailie said, her voice dripping in sarcasm.  
"Well, I really would prefer to be flirting with that hot Ravenclaw seventh year but, 'cause I'm such a good friend I'll tag along, but tomorrow we go prank some innocent first years..." she trailed off mid- snigger when Cailie slugged her.  
"Ow. Jeez, I was being sarcastic," She whined, rubbing her arm tenderly.  
"Oh." Cailie said automatically feeling stupid. She didn't like this feeling, so slugged her again. Caitie huffed and pushed the door open and stomped inside, but threw Cailie a smile over her shoulder before taking a glance at Professor Marchbanks.  
Her outfit enough was enough to make even the least fashion conscious person in the world cringe, and enough to keep the extremely fashion minded duo gaping and gawking for the remainder of the detention. She had on black leggings, which was all perfectly fine with Caitie, seeing as how that was the style in muggle America. But she also had on green and red Christmas socks that were.... well...humming Christmas Carols and a pink Japanese muumuu over a Christmas sweater, and on her feet she wore fuzzy pink slippers.  
"Well, what are you staring at? Here, here are the cauldrons. Take a seat, anywhere dearies, and just start scrubbing away!" She stood up, waving her arms around stupidly and speaking as if they were all on a highly amusing trip to some kind of magical park. Cailie and Caitie tore themselves away from the pink muumuu and sat down on the cold, stone floor, grabbed the toothbrushes and began scrubbing out the cauldrons.  
They had barely gotten through one cauldron each when the professor got up from her position in her desk and started wandering around the room. She cocked her head to one side and looked at the ceiling,  
"Dear me, I do believe the ceiling's leaking. Someone must've flooded the bathrooms again. Hooligans." Cailie snorted, attempting to turn her laugh into a hacking cough, and Caitie had to pretend to have dropped her toothbrush onto the crusty bottom of the cauldron to duck out of sight in order to keep her composure. After this Professor Marchbanks opened her mouth and spun around, arms out on either side of her,  
"I'm singiiiing in the raaaiiiin, just signing in the raaaiiin!" The pair looked up at the professor, horrified.  
"Err...." Caitie bit her lip, her gut instinct told her to get Madam Promfrey and tell her the professor had gone 'round the bend. The professor gave them a glare,  
"Well, get back to work, this is a detention, not a coffee clutch." Eyebrows raised and shaking their heads, they went back to work.  
They were about halfway through the pile when They heard parchment flying, the professor had just taken a large pile of what looked like essays and threw them up into the air, apparently looking for something. She got up, tumbling the wooden chair over and shouted exasperatedly,  
"Where could it have gone!? I swear I put it right here." She paced around the room, looking the stupidest places, muttering to herself all the while, her socks still singing,  
"Joy to the world!"  
"Professor, are you...uhm...talking to us?" Cailie asked, looking sincerely disturbed.  
The professor looked at them as if they were the insane ones, and waved her arms around some more, as if attempting to shoo them away,  
"No, no, why would I be talking to you? You wouldn't know where my lesson parchment was.... now, go back to your cauldrons, for the last time." Cailie rolled her eyes, and Caitie said in an undertone,  
"If she keeps this up, she's going to flap herself into the ceiling." Cailie stifled a giggle and they continued on in this manner until the professor told them they could go,  
"But be back tomorrow! Same time, and we'll have some more fun fun fun!" The duo fled the room as fast as was humanly possible and waited until they got into a normal, well-lit corridor before collapsing into a fit of giggles, crying from laughter.  
  
*~~~*  
  
Remus Lupin did a "James" and slicked his hair back before descending from the boys tower and down into the Common Room, where Lily was waiting impatiently, so they could begin their weekly prefect rounds. Usually, Lily and Remus traded off so Lily patrolled with the Ravenclaw fifth year boy, and Remus patrolled with Jessi, but Jessi had a Quidditch practice and switched off with some Hufflepuffs, so Remus was stuck patrolling with Lily, who, as far as he knew, hated his and all his friend's guts. 'Course, she didn't hate him with the passion she hated James and Sirius, but they weren't exactly friendly either, for Lily had stated he was immature as well, just not as impossibly arrogant as them. They started off down the hallways, Lupin jogging to keep up with Lily's brisk pace. The silence was uncomfortably awkward, and after about fifteen minutes of this, Lily couldn't stand it anymore, and in between reprimanding students and threatening to dock points, she went on a tangent about anything and everything.  
"And I can't believe the O.W.L's are so close, I'm so afraid I'm not going to do well-Hey! Go back to your dorm, immediately, it's after curfew! But anyway, I'm glad the professors aren't testing us; they so pick favorites-could you please keep the PDA to a minimum? And this does not include snogging in the corridor-Potter, obviously, everyone loves him, as well as Black, and you, but at least you earned it. And everyone just loves the Girlies. Whores." She took a breath and started to continue, but Remus cut her off.  
"You know, this is my friends you're talking about, here."  
"Oh, right, sorry." Lily fell silent, and they continued to make there rounds until they came upon two girls in stitches with laughter.  
"Uhh, Cailie? Smiley? Not to be rude or anything, but what the hell are you doing?" Caitie looked up, her face purple from laughter,  
"Detention...Marchbanks...nutcase...muumuu." She gasped before falling over in hysterics again. Lily cocked her head and raised her eyebrows, just looking all the more confused, but Remus grinned goofily and chuckled a little.  
"Oh, so you understand what they're finding so amusing then, are you?" Lily asked, a bitter edge to her voice. Lily didn't like the Girlies, especially not the French one, Cailie. 'She could be more egotistical and more horrible to people then James, and that's truly saying something. And anyone who chooses willingly to be friends with her needs a strong dose of reality' Lily thought, dislike spread plainly across her face.  
"Well, I got the gist of it," Remus said, shrugging, pulling Lily from her thoughts.  
"Oh. Well, even if you had detention that' s no reason to still be out here. I'll talk to Professor McGonogall about docking some points," She said briskly, and began to walk off, expecting Lupin to follow her. Instead, he was helping the two up, and his jaw had slackened. 'The way they're talking and laughing, it's like they don't even care. They'll just be able to get the points back anyway, probably not even doing something worthwhile of them. Oh, they're so disgusting. It's so unfair.' Lily stalked off; ready to throw a temper-tantrum, like she did when she was three. Throwing closet doors open, attempting to catch unsuspecting students, and then slamming them closed when her attempts were in vain, she felt like she was going to scream.  
Remus quickly jogged up to her and said,  
"You know, you're not going to accomplish anything by having a right little hissy-fit." Lily fumed at him,  
"Well, why not? All you're friends do it, and it's ok for them. But I can't. 'Course not, Lily Evan's isn't pretty enough, and she actually has to work to get good grades. 'Course Lily can't throw a hissy-fit, 'cause no one can cause useless drama about there useless, pathetic lives, unless they're the infamous Girlies or the sexy Marauders, who are famous for one- night-stands, but still have girls weak in the knees if they look they're way! I hate it!"  
Remus looked at her, eyes wide.  
"Look, I know my friends aren't saints, neither am I, hell we can be outright jerks at times. But you don't even know half the story. From f r away they seem like they have the perfect lives. But they don't. We don't, I don't. I know it's not an excuse for any of our behavior towards everyone else, but maybe you should get to know them a little, they're really great people deep down. A great muggle once said, 'don't talk about a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes.'" Lily became thoughtful, and in her heart, she knew Remus was right. But Lily had always been what her friends had fondly called,  
'A Stubborn-ass', and she was definitely not ready to admit it. So, as an excuse to not say anything, she opened one last door, and recoiled in horror. There was James, stupid grin plastered on his face, in only his boxers, with a younger Ravenclaw, Elisa, Lily thought her name was, who looked like a deer in headlights. There hair was tousled, and Elisa's make- up was smeared. It was rather obvious what had been taking place.  
Lily was struck-dumb for a moment, but she recovered quickly, and shooting a glare at both Remus and James, and then in a 'huff' ran off.  
Remus gave James a hit upside the head.  
"Ouch, what was that about!?" Asked James, looking at Remus grumpily.  
"Prongs, I almost had the girl convinced you were half-reasonable. Then we walk in on you and her shagging in the broom closet." It was James' turn to look stricken, and he to, huffed away, leaving a very distraught Elisa. 


	16. CHAPTER 16: CHARMS, HEXES, AND SPELLS, O...

CHAPTER 16: PRANKS, HEXES, AND CHARMS, OH MY!  
  
Disclaimer: If you haven't realized by now that I don't own this you have some serious issues to work out.  
*~~~*  
It was Friday! Finally! The week was almost over, and as of tomorrow the lot of them would be on the train to go home. The Girlies and the Marauder's were all going home for the holidays, each to their own in order to see there families.  
  
Caitie, especially, felt the need to go back home for Christmas, because it was only her and her mom at home, and she knew that during the year her mom got awful lonely, and around the holidays she tended to get a little depressed. Sirius wasn't looking forward to going home, but since the rest of his friends were leaving, he decided he might as well. Cailie was kind of feeling rather numb about the whole situation. This holiday would not be fun for her. Here, at Hogwarts, she had her friends, she had classes. She had people and things to distract her. She didn't have to think about things, about her sister being gone. She could push it to the back of her mind and pretend it didn't exist. But it did exist, and going back home meant having to face it head on. If there was one thing Cailie could not deal with it was facing her worst fears and confirming her worst suspicions. The rest were looking forward to it, seeing as how they hadn't seen their families since September.  
  
"I can't wait to go home, I mean, Hogwarts is great, but my mom's cooking is the best!" Jessi said in a sort-of dream-like state as she applied mascara in the Common Room; the girls were readying to go down to breakfast.  
  
"Mmm" was all Ashley had to say. Last summer she had spent a couple of weeks with Jessi while her mom and stepfather went on a Honeymoon. Caitie suddenly appeared at the top of the stairway and said,  
  
"Yes, but I bet no one else goes out to Denny's on Christmas with there mothers'!" She squealed excitedly as she slid down the banister and landed gracefully on her feet. "You guys ready to go, or what?"  
  
"I'm ready," chorused Jessi and Ashley, both hopping to their feet.  
  
"Where's Cailie?" Ashley asked, whipping her head around as if she would miraculously appear in the Common Room.  
  
"No idea," Jessi replied sighing, and began knocking on the bathroom door, "Anybody in there?" Ashley quickly pushed her out of the way.  
  
"That's not going to work, no one's going to hear you with that little voice!" She then proceeded to pound on the door and scream out,  
  
"CAILIE! If you're in there, you need to get the hell OUT! We promised we'd meet you're other half and his friends down at the entryway at 7:30!" As it turned out, the only person in there was a timid first-year girl who upon opening the door, turned a deep shade of crimson and quickly scuttled away, mumbling her apologies.  
  
"Were we ever that shy?" asked Ashley, who was scorning at the girl as if it were her fault that Cailie couldn't be found.  
  
"No, Ashley, I don't think YOU were ever that quiet," said Jessi laughing.  
  
"Dudes, I know we can't find Cailie, but we really do need to be getting down to breakfast. We have reputations-and need I mention some very hot friends to be getting to?" Caitie whined, tapping her foot impatiently.  
  
"Fine, fine, we're coming," Ashley, sighed, throwing up her hands dramatically and pushing Jessi out the door.  
  
*~~~*  
  
Cailie was sitting at the top of the astronomy tower, and had been since early this morning. Sleeping hadn't ever been a hard thing for her; but since her sister's death getting to sleep-and staying asleep-was one of her hardest, most painful experiences. 'Besides', she mused, 'life is to short to be sleeping it away, just as laughter's to sweet to be taken for granted.' She sighed and wiped her eyes, which had, completely unbeknownst to her, started falling over the edge of her eyelids. Before this whole mess, she never cried, never showed emotion to anyone, not even when she was alone. Now, she cried twice before breakfast, even if it was in private. 'This may or may not be considered progress.' She thought and smiled shakily. Sighing, she realized she would have to leave her sacred haven and go down and face the world. She pulled out her mirror, brushed on some make-up, and pulled a brush forcefully through her hair, and put her 'face' on before lightly padding down the steps.  
  
*~~~~*  
  
Sirius came bounding down the steps, feet pounding the ground like elephant's, a dog-like grin on his face. James and Remus came sliding down the banister almost simultaneously on opposite sides and Peter came down the steps not even a second after, taking them two and three at a time. They were all in a very good mood, and anyone who was anyone could tell from the uproarious laughter and the fact that they were thoughtfully dropping Filibuster's Fireworks at random points in the hallway.  
  
"Mr. Padfoot, must you pick the most obvious places to drop those? We can only worm are way out of so many things in a day," Remus said, although he was grinning and also dropping them, in slightly less –obvious- places.  
  
"Come on, Mr. Moony, get into the spirits! We're almost done! Besides they can't rightly persecute us until we get back, we have two and half weeks to contemplate ways to get out of punishment. It'll be a piece of cake, especially with you on our team," said James smiling good-naturedly, as he transfigured a few small sprigs of holly into huge Christmas trees, realistic-looking snowflakes, and abnormally large sprigs of mistletoe.  
  
"Mr. Prongs, you know very well that operation slimy gits was all your idea!" Remus said, pleasantly surprised at his friend's modesty,  
  
"So it was, Mr. Moony, so it was, and I take all the credit for the idea" he replied nodding solemnly. Remus rolled his eyes and smiled as James continued, "But I give credit where credit is due, as you must know by now, and the researching of the spell and charms all goes to Mr. Remus Lupin, resident brain of the Marauders!" Remus bowed as the three others applauded,  
  
"We mustn't forget the two who did the majority of the rule-breaking, of course, Mr. Padfoot, who performed most of the wonderful and Godly pranking, and Mr.Wormtail, for keeping lookout while the three of us were in there!" Exclaimed Remus and they all whooped and cheered there way toward the entrance to the Great Hall, where they met Cailie, who, although her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, had on a bright smile and gave Sirius a tender kiss. He moaned in the back of his throat and she gave a smile to James, Peter and Remus.  
  
"Where are Smiley and Ashley and Jessi?" Remus inquired.  
  
"Right here and now that we are here, the world can begin revolving again!" Ashley said jokingly, although it definitely had a serious underlying.  
  
Sirius put his arms around Cailie and dipped her Hollywood style giving her a long, passionate kiss after entering the Great Hall. Cailie came up looking red and flustered, but both looked extremely happy just the same. The rest of the hall looked on enviously.  
  
'How come he gets true love?' Remus asked himself as he forced out a smile for Sirius, 'He's a man whore and completely immature, while Cailie is incredibly fickle and has the biggest mood-swings ever known to mankind. They have about fifty make-ups and break-ups a week, but that didn't bother either of them, whatsoever! They'd just be back together the next day, and they really cared about each other. Why can't I have that?' Remus definitely was not the only one in thinking this; all he had to do was look around to see the same look of fake-happiness on a lot of the group's faces. He sighed and shoved his hands in his pant pockets, scuffing his feet against the round out of habit.  
  
Caitie observed the scene around her, attempting to block out the Cailie- Sirius snog-fest, and watched with curiosity as she saw James aim his wand in Lily's direction from behind his back and muttering some words out of the corner of his mouth. Caitie grinned and shook her head, 'When is he ever going to learn that he's not going to get that bitch in his bed by hexing her from here to kingdom come?' She then sidled over to Remus and said,  
  
"You guys are planning something more then the usual dung bomb dropping and end of term fireworks, aren't you?" Remus nodded smirking,  
  
"Spill," she said, eyes glowing with excitement.  
  
"Wait and see, Smiley, dear, wait and see," he said smiling, taking pleasure in her whining and begging. He just grinned at her mischievously, until she began to stamp away towards the Ravenclaw table. However, she hadn't made it even halfway through her dramatic tirade when an older Slytherein with long, blonde hair suddenly knocked her to the floor. She shook her hair out of her eyes, and was getting ready to glare at whoever her culprit was, but instead she only blinked a few times, and her mouth dropped open from amused shock.  
  
There, in a crumpled heap, was Luscious Malfoy, with Severus standing over him, both clad in only fuzzy, pink thongs and across there chest in glittering red and gold paint was,  
  
"Compliments of the Marauders".  
  
The duo quickly got up and went running over to Dumbledore, clearly enraged. Caitie, however, sat on the ground laughing long after Dumbledore managed to change the thongs back into their normal uniforms, as did the rest of the school. Finally, Ashley came over to her and helped her up, almost collapsing into a fit of giggles herself.  
  
"Well, now Snivellus' bony ass is permanently etched into all of our minds. Isn't that great?" The Girlies fell into their chairs at the Ravenclaw table laughing hysterically.  
  
The Marauder's sat down at the Gryffindor table to cheers and whoops and congratulatory slaps on the back. Even the over-exuberant and stickler-for- rules Head Boy, Arthur Weasly was smiling and looking like he was holding back laughter.  
  
"That was pretty damn good, if I do say so myself," James stated happily shaking hands with a dodgy-looking seventh year who was friends with Sirius, named Mundungus.  
  
"You always do!" Cheered Sirius as he was surrounded by three sixth year girls and was flirting with them shamelessly. Remus was entertaining a couple of third year girls with the tale of how they accomplished the whole thing, (getting more and more exaggerated by the second) and Peter was talking to a blushing first-year girl. Basking in all of the attention, they glowed with pride, that is, until Sirius coughed fairly obviously into Remus' face, and muttered,  
  
"You better be coming up with that excuse pretty quickly, Moony, I'm talkin' in a...few seconds." Remus looked up from his conversation and immediately his smile slid right off his face.  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
"Yeah, I'd say." McGonogall was walking towards them, her mouth pressed together in a thin, white line, and looking very indignant.  
  
*~~~*  
  
James was very happy, very happy indeed. It was the end of the day, the end of the term, and he strode proudly out of Dumbeldore's office, having just talked his way out of a month's worth of detention. Instead, he would be doing 'Hogwarts Service' with Hagrid, which would be incredibly easy, he would probably make him weed out the garden or something, and turn the other cheek when he used magic. He also was very proud of himself for convincing the Headmaster that Remus had nothing to do with it, so he wouldn't lose his Prefect badge. James could be accused rightly of many things, and he knew it, although he knew it somewhere deep, deep down, but one thing even Lily Evans couldn't accuse him of being was unfaithful (well, girls were usually an exception.) He was dead loyal to a select group of whom he deemed worthy of his loyalty, and he sure as hell had to be sure he could trust them with his life. Those seven people were Sirius (him above all else, that guy was like his brother), Remus, Peter, Smiley, Cailie, Ashley, and Jessi.  
  
'Speak of the Devil' James said as his friends happily made his way over to him, clamoring for details.  
  
"Mr. Prongs, you have once again saved the day!" Whooped Sirius as he and Remus clapped him over the back. Smiley gave him a dazzling, thousand- galleon smile, and Jessi gave him a kiss on the cheek. Sirius seized this as yet another chance to show some PDA to his girlfriend, and they kissed passionately, right in the middle of the hallway, swarms of people around them making there way down to the Great Hall for dinner.  
  
"Oh my God, they are so disgusting," said Lily, as Becca rolled her eyes, continuing on their quest to speak to James. Neither Lily nor Becca was willinginly talking to James, and they weren't especially looking forward to doing so with his man-whore friends present, as well as a few bitches better known as The Girlies. But, throughout there day, a considerably large bushel of mistletoe had sprouted over Lily's head and had made it's home there for the day. Lily was not at all pleased, especially since the only person who could be responsible just happened to be one of the biggest jerks of all time.  
  
"Potter!" She said storming up to him and startling the group. James just glanced at her and a scornful grin crept onto his face. Everyone else looked at Lily bemusedly, realization dawning only on Caitie's face.  
  
"What the bloody hell is the meaning of this?"  
  
"Well, Evan's," He began spitefully, "I'm sure you've heard of the muggle tradition of mistletoe, seeing as how you are a muggle-born."  
  
"I'm perfectly aware of it thanks," She snapped back. James shrugged his shoulders and grinned nonchalantly,  
  
"Well, then, grab you're camera, this is definitely a moment to be cherished so you and you're little friend can maybe make a shrine out of it or something." Lily looked at him, annoyed and confused. He inched closer to her, and she suddenly realized what was happening, and she quickly jumped backwards, disgusted, and the bush followed her.  
  
"Oh, no. Nonono. I flat out refuse to kiss you, James Potter. I'd drop dead first." James just grinned even wider,  
  
"Well, then, I suppose you'll have to be buried with a bush of mistletoe over your head. 'Tis a shame, though, you are quite the sexy little thing," he said looking at her almost obscenely. Lily narrowed her eyes in complete loathing, feeling very violated.  
  
"Do you mean to tell me, Potter, that this thing" She spat, gesturing to the bush, "will stay here until my dying day unless I kiss...YOU?" She looked horrified at the thought.  
  
"Yep," He replied grinning wickedly.  
  
"I hate you James Potter, and I always will." With that she grabbed him and gave him a hard, quick short kiss on the lips, but it felt electric. Lily quickly dismissed the thought, and blamed it on the spell, which, as James promised, had disappeared, to her relief.  
  
James, on the to her hand, touched his lips, in a sort of daze. He felt it, she was sure she felt it, so why was she seething at him? He was sure he had never felt this when he kissed any other girl. He sighed, and at that moment, Lily smacked him across his face, causing his buzzing lips to crack and bleed a little.  
  
"Hey, what the hell was that for?" James and Sirius cried at the same time.  
  
"For being a tasteless, obscene jerk." She stated simply and began to walk away, but Cailie yelled to her retreating back,  
  
"Why do you always have to act like you've got a two-foot stick shoved up your ass?" Lily spun on her heel, her eyes flashing dangerously.  
  
"Well firstly, he's been acting like a complete idiot to me ever since first year. Especially in first year, damnit. Secondly, even after he claims to be in love with me, which I know otherwise, seeing as how he says that to every one of his conquests, he treats me like scum and is a complete pig to me!" Sirius began to retort, but Becca glared at him, so Cailie said it instead,  
  
"Well, I think he really likes you, and you won't even give him a chance. He's not all bad you know! "  
  
"Well maybe if he showed me that once in awhile I would give him a chance."  
  
"I don't think you would, Evans, you are such a bitch, with your nose stuck up in the air, just because you think your perfect, with top grades and all the likes, and Potters not good enough for you. In fact, I've noticed that your too good for everyone apparently, seeing as how you haven't had a date in God knows how long, or maybe it's just 'cause your so goddamn ugly!" James was beginning to look uncomfortable, as was Remus, and Becca had her wand pointed in Sirius face, which Caitie and Ashley stood, looking haughty and indignant, (making sure they looked beautifully so, all the same) as the shouting match continued,  
  
"I have MY nose stuck in the air? Jesus Christ, All of your noses are stuck so high in the air that I'm surprised you're able to see anything other then the ceiling and the sky! And at least I'm not easy and slut."  
  
"I AM NOT SOME GODDAMN CHEAP WHROE!"  
  
"Don't come much cheaper then free, Dep," Lily retorted coldly. Cailie looked murderous.  
  
"Lily, I am through with you're shit. I don't know why James is so in love with you, and I never will. You are a stuck-up bitch with no sense of humor and a complete do-gooder, with no life. You can screw up James' life further, that is none of my business, but you have screwed up mine for way too long." Cailie shouted out a bunch of incantations in French and immediately Lily keeled over, lifeless.  
  
"Oh my God, what have you done to her?" Squealed Becca, running over to her friend. James looked equally terrified and shocked, but torn between his best friends and his obsession.  
  
"Stunned her. Like four times, you might want to take her to the Hospital Wing," Cailie said, shrugging her shoulders indifferently. "Oh my God, I'm going to kill you!" Becca squealed again, "You could've seriously injured he! Or worse, killed her!" Cailie shrugged yet again, and Becca began screaming a mix or swearwords and hexes.  
  
"Oh, shut up already," Caitie said, extremely pissed off at this whole mess, and pointed her wand at her nose, "Silencio!" Becca's eyes widened in surprise and anger, and her mouth was opening and closing frantically, but no sound coming out. Satisfied with her work, Caitie turned on her heel and walked briskly away, seven others scrambling to follow her, all ignoring Arthur Weasly's frantic calls of,  
  
"Stop immediately! AS Head Boy I order you to stop and explain yourselves!"  
  
They walked down the hall silently, lost in their own angry thoughts. Suddenly, James remembered an owl he had gotten form his Mum earlier that morning,  
  
"You guys, my mum and dad are going away for New Years and I said I could have some friends over from New Years Eve until school starts again, and I want you to know that your invited."  
  
They all smiled distractedly at him, attempting the reassure everyone else and themselves that it was normal. They did this every day to people, and no one knew why it was bothering each and everyone one of them so much. Since when had any of them sprouted a conscious? 


End file.
